If you didn’t like Kick-Ass 2 very much or were curious why the two main characters shared a kiss at the end, you’re not alone. Chloë Grace Moretz was not a fan of the film either and seems to want to wipe it from her memory. It has also turned her off of any possible plans for her return in a third Kick-Ass movie.
As she tells visitors at the Provincetown Film Festival, she had a fondness for the original film in the series and the second one didn’t do itself any favors according to Indiewire:
“I love the franchise, I think the first movie was really, really special,” the actress said during a festival event over the weekend. “I wish the second one had been handled in a little bit of a different way. Because I think we were all kind of looking forward to something a little different than what happened with it all…
“As much as I love the character of Hit-Girl, I think she lives and survives in ‘Kick-Ass,’ and I kind of want to keep her there,” she said. “I kinda wanna keep everyone’s mind in ‘Kick-Ass.’ So I don’t think there will be a ‘Kick-Ass 3,’ at least I don’t think with Hit-Girl in it.”
As pointed out by Indiewire, Matthew Vaughn had discussed a possible reboot in the third film, and a spin-off Hit Girl solo film. Whether Moretz would be attached to any solo movie is another question, but the interview doesn’t give it all much hope. That said, there is an exciting route for Kick-Ass happening in Mark Millar’s latest comic series and it could be prime for a reboot. As Millar told Entertainment Weekly back in November, he sees Kick-Ass as a “legacy character” that can give way to newer versions — in this case, one with an interesting twist:
In this new Kick-Ass, Dave Lizewski (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the two film adaptations) has given way to a new character in the title role: Patience Lee, a black military veteran with young children. “I don’t think I’ve ever created a better [character],” he says. “I love mom heroes. I did it in Empress and I’ve done it again here…
“I wanted to shake up the setting a little and shifted the whole thing to New Mexico. The lead is a woman this time, a mother in her early 30s with two young kids. She’s also a military vet who came home to find her life in a completely different setting from the way it was when she went to Afghanistan so the actual dynamic of the book is really different, but at the same time the flavor is identical.”
If anything, this direction would avoid the issues and criticisms within Kick-Ass 2. And for now, it seems like this might be the only potential route that avoids recasting a main character.
(Via Indiewire / Entertainment Weekly)