‘Alive, but paused’: Disney’s relentless content purge hasn’t yet claimed the life of the long-awaited sequel series to a sci-fi cult classic

Not content with wiping its own exclusive content from the face of existence as part of the widest-ranging of content purges, Disney Plus has since decided that canceling completed shows was the smartest way to continue trimming the financial fat. Fret not, though, for the Real Steel sequel series is still alive.

For over a decade, demands for a follow-up to the robot boxing cult classic were little more than wishful thinking, which was strange seeing as the movie was within a whisker of earning $300 million at the global box office and scored solid-if-unspectacular notices from critics and crowds alike.

However, when the pandemic happened, Real Steel suddenly became one of the biggest movies on the planet, spending weeks as one of Netflix’s top-viewed titles and refusing to come down. Smelling something in the water, the Mouse House sought to capitalize on its resurgence to announce the episodic continuation in January of last year. Since then, we’ve heard barely a peep.

Unfortunately, that looks to be the way forward until the strikes end, with original director and executive producer Shawn Levy revealing to Collider that while Real Steel isn’t dead, it’s hardly alive and kicking, either, saying “I want it as badly as the lovers of Real Steel want it, so alive, but paused.”

That’ll have to do for now, but everybody who campaigned their hardest to will something into existence can at least sleep soundly knowing that one day the second chapter in the nascent franchise will make it to screens.