Disney's ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE Almost Got a Theatrical Sequel and Here Are The Details

I’m sure you all remember the Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was one of the more underrated films that Disney made. I loved it and according to the film’s co-director Kirk Wise, who also helmed Beauty and The Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the movie almost got a theatrical sequel!

Just as a reminder before we go on, here’s the synopsis for the original film:

An inexperienced young adventurer becomes the key to unraveling an ancient mystery when he joins up with a group of daredevil explorers to find the legendary lost empire of Atlantis. A naive-but-determined museum cartographer Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox), dreams of completing the quest begun by his late grandfather, a famous explorer. When a journal surfaces, an eccentric billionaire funds an expedition and the action shifts to high gear.

Now, there was an animated TV series in development that the movie spawned titled Team Atlantis that was shut down only after three episodes were completed. You see, the movie didn’t do very well at the box office, so after it bombed they shut the production on the series down and released the three episodes as a direct-to-video Disney animated sequel that they titled Atlantis: Milo’s Return. That was not the theatrical sequel that was being planned!

There was supposed to be a proper sequel if the film had a better run at the box office. When asked if any sequels for the first film were mapped out, Wise told Collider:

“Believe it or not we did. [Story supervisor] John Sanford, Gary and I actually concocted an idea for a sequel to Atlantis. It had no relation to the Atlantis TV series that was being developed at Disney Television Animation. This was a feature-length, full-on, full-blown sequel to Atlantis.”

Wise went on to offer up some details on the plot and the story’s big third-act reveal, saying:

“We were going to have a new villain in the story. The villain was going to be wearing big, scary, wool, bulky, World War I-style clothing with a frightening gasmask to obscure it’s face; a little Darth Vader-esque. And this villain was going to try and retake Atlantis and finish the job that Rourke was unable to accomplish. And the big twist in the climax of the movie is that the villain is unmasked and it turns out to be Helga Sinclair. Plot twist!”

For those of you who don’t remember, Helga was the seductive and mysterious German femme fatal. She serves as second-in-command of the expedition to find the lost continent of Atlantis, and additionally serves as the personal assistant to the ruthless Commander Rourke. She was voiced by Claudia Christian. Wise went on to talk about the character further, saying:

“So Helga survived her fall, became an early-20th-century cyborg and started her own team of mercenaries.”

It would have been cool to see this movie happen. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be.