Hugh Jackman and Shawn Levy Have Been Talking About Making a Sequel To REAL STEEL
It looks like there’s a chance that we could see a sequel to the 2011 robot boxing film, Real Steel. That turned out to be a super fun flick and I’m totally open to watching the story continue in a sequel!
It turns out the success of the film on Netflix got director Shawn Levy and actor Hugh Jackman talking about a potential sequel. During a recent interview with Inverse, Levy shared:
“It has been in my mind and in conversation a lot lately. Maybe because of the fact that when Netflix started streaming it during the lockdown, it became one of their top trending and most-viewed titles. Which led to Hugh and I talking again about, ‘What is this love for Real Steel?’ Kind of this realization that, ‘Well wait, we love it that much too.’ We’ve always loved it that much too. It’s one of those never say nevers, it feels like the clock has run out on that window of opportunity. It feels like that fan-love and that audience hasn’t gone away. So, who knows?”
Obviously, there’s still a solid fan base out there for the first film and it’d be so much fun to jump back into this world of fighting robots. I’m actually surprised that we didn’t get a sequel to Real Steel sooner. But, it turns out there was an attempt. A few years ago, co-star Evangeline Lily revealed:
“I honestly was with you guys in pushing really hard for a Real Steel 2 — to the extent that when I got the feedback that when they were going to do it and then they were having issues in the writing room, I went off and I outlined and wrote my own version of Real Steel 2 and what I would do.”
In the first film, Jackman played Charlie Kenton in the film, who used to be a prizefighter. But he lost his chance to win a title when heavy, towering robots took over the boxing ring. So he ended up working as a small-time promoter, and during this time he pieced together scrap metal into low-end fighters, barely earning enough to make it from one underground venue to the next. After hitting rock bottom, Charlie reluctantly teams with his estranged son, Max, to build and train a championship robot for a last shot at redemption.
If you haven’t seen Real Steel yet, you should check it out! If you have seen it, are you up for a sequel?