As far as high concept pitches for original superhero stories go, Netflix’s Project Power has a doozy. The idea of a pill that gives anyone who takes it superpowers for five minutes at a time is ripe for further exploration, especially when the abilities are rooted in traits that are common in the animal kingdom.
It can be leaned on as a device to drive the story given the black market and criminal elements, or it can be used to support the action sequences by imbuing the standard formula with a brief added kick of CGI superpowers for some extra oomph and visual flair. There’s even comedic potential to mine, because nobody would be thrilled to discover that they’d gained the ability to shoot sulfuric chemicals out of their ass like a skunk for five minutes when they were hoping for something like a rhino or a tiger.
On that note, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Luke Skywalker would be returning to Star Wars long before his cameo in The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale sent the internet into meltdown – that Project Power 2 is going to double down on its premise and introduce a multitude of wild, weird and wonderful superpowers after the first outing was somewhat contained in showcasing the true breadth of the titular experiments.
Almost every sequel is obligated to go bigger, of course, and having become one of Netflix’s most-watched original movies ever, scoring decent reviews from critics and a hugely enthusiastic response from fans in the process, Project Power 2 will more than likely cost a lot more than its $85 million predecessor, and the worldbuilding will take up a lot of those costs as we see the full scope of superpowers on display.
