You’d be forgiven for forgetting that plans for a Valiant Cinematic Universe were a thing, or not even knowing in the first place for that matter. Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot was set to be the opening installment in the latest attempt at mounting a shared universe, only for the Coronavirus pandemic to come along and throw a significant spanner in the works.
The comic book adaptation was one of the first major releases to be affected by COVID-19 after hitting theaters right before most of the world went into lockdown, and it wound up arriving on VOD just a couple of weeks following its theatrical debut. That means Bloodshot failed to even recoup its modest $45 million budget, although it did go on to post strong sales on digital.
There was even talk for a while that the property would be getting one of the quickest reboots in recorded history, before it was announced last November that Diesel is set to return for a sequel, so Bloodshot presumably wound up turning a profit after home video and streaming sales were factored in.
The shared universe is still up in the air, though, and in a new interview, co-writer Eric Heisserer admitted that while it’s not impossible, there are several legal and contractual obstacles to overcome before it can realistically happen.
“I think it got mired in a producorial divorce. Some of the properties are at Sony and some are at Paramount, and that makes for a difficult cinematic universe construction. It’s not impossible, but it makes it a little more of burdensome, and I don’t know if they know a way through with that.”
We’d already heard that Valiant characters including Ninjak and X-O Manowar could be getting their own solo outings, but the pandemic cutting Bloodshot‘s box office off at the knees no doubt saw any momentum stall, development-wise at least. However, if Diesel’s Ray Garrison is receiving a second adventure, then there’s still plenty of room to introduce more comic book favorites as part of the story.
