Following the success of John Wick 10 years ago, there were plenty of other action franchises that arrived on the scene. These included titles like the incredible street-level beat-em-up, Nobody, and David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde.
Atomic Blonde was a film that launched to plenty of critical praise and has since settled with a 79 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, with a Certified Fresh sticker for extra measure. That’s quite an impressive feat, and so is the audience score of the slightly lower 64 percent. Given that success, the desire for a sequel is there. However, it seems the movie is currently stuck in limbo.
Leitch has shared that the anticipated sequel is currently facing issues regarding its rights, which have stopped the movie from being made. He shared that the project has jumped between hands in recent times during an interview with The Direct.
“Everyone’s still trying to unravel rights issues,” Leitch explained. “It had traveled from Universal to Netflix for a bit, and then now it’s become a little bit of a bottleneck of too many forces working against each other to try and get it made because it’s such a great piece of IP, and it would be amazing to go back and revisit that world and that character. So, hopefully, we can get it done.” — David Leitch, The Direct.
It’s been several years since Leitch made Atomic Blonde. Following the 2017 release, the director would go on to make Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and modern hits Bullet Train and The Fall Guy.
By the sounds of it, there are quite a few things to resolve before we see the movie arrive in theaters. The first Atomic Blonde was a complete ride, but it still left the door open for a lot more exploration of these characters and their world in the future. For that reason alone it would be an incredible shame if we never got a sequel, not least because it’s always fun watching Charlize Theron give bad guys a well-deserved walloping.
For comparison, John Wick was a movie that can be enjoyed from start to finish with no real need to see more, but in the sequel the world-building went to 100 and we got incredible insight into Wick’s actions, how the systems in this universe function, and a ton more. That’s exactly what fans are hoping for with a sequel to Atomic Blonde, but for the love of God, don’t call it Atomic Blond-er.
CinemaBlend previously spoke to Kurt Johnstad, who wrote Atomic Blonde, about the possibility of a sequel, and he shared that he’s yet to be contacted to work on the second film. Still, the writer explained that he always saw the story as part of a trilogy.
The last update we got until Leitch’s more recent comments was back in 2020, when Netflix confirmed they would be making the movie. At that time no writers were attached to the project, however Theron was expected to reprise her leading role at the titular blonde bada**.
Wherever the movie ends up — whether it’s at Netflix or back in the hands of Universal — hopefully whoever gets it will invest the time and cash to make it just as incredible as the first film. You can now stream Atomic Blonde on Peacock.
Published: Nov 5, 2024 06:56 pm