As the superhero movie boom continues its conquering of Hollywood, Kick-Ass is stepping back into the fray. The original Kick-Ass movie, based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., was directed by Matthew Vaughn and written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. It was released in 2010 while the Marvel Cinematic Universe was still in its infancy.
Jeff Wadlow wrote and directed Kick-Ass 2, which hit theaters in 2013. There had been rumblings of a third installment in subsequent years, but those plans never materialized. It’s been rather quiet on the status of the Kick-Ass franchise for the most part in recent years, but per Collider, original director Matthew Vaughn says the new plan is to reboot the series from scratch. He also claims that the project is even all “ready to go.”
Vaughn suggests that the Kick-Ass movies might have just been ahead of their time. The success of R-rated movies based on comic books, such as Deadpool and Joker, have gotten studios to reconsider the stance they have had on backing those types of movies. Confident that the reboot is happening for real, Vaughn says that the search is on to find a new lead star with Aaron Taylor-Johnson no longer the one suited up in the green-and-yellow tights.
“We’ve got a big reboot of Kick-Ass in two years. Big reboot. It’s so f–king nuts that I can’t talk about it. But we’ve got that ready to go. All the rights revert back in two years and then we’re going to reboot it where people will be like, he is insane.”
Kick-Ass tells the story of a teenager obsessed with comic books who sets out to become a real-life superhero. He realizes he may be in for more than he can truly handle before he gets the assistance of Hit-Girl, an eleven-year-old girl who’s been efficiently trained as a deadly vigilante.
“Because I think the clue is in the title. I think Kick-Ass became a new type of genre. Everyone was like, ‘Oh, you can’t make R-rated superheroes. No one will want to see an R-rated superhero. You can’t do this. You can’t do that.’ So, I had this idea, and it was so nuts that I went, ‘Yeah, great. It’ll cause just as much controversy, and everyone will talk about it and as many people that love it will hate it.’ But I’m not saying it hasn’t got the characters in it and won’t have, you know. I’m just saying it’s not what anyone could be imagining what it is. And I’m going to need one very, very brave actor or actress to play the new Kick-Ass because it will scare the shit out of them.”
For now, there’s no official release date for the new Kick-Ass reboot with the project still shrouded in mystery. Two years really isn’t too far away in terms of making big-budget movies, so perhaps a casting announcement for the new Kick-Ass can’t be too far off. For now, fans can always go back and revisit the original movies.
