Colombiana started as a sequel to Leon: The Professional?

For years we’ve heard rumors about a possible sequel to Luc Besson’s brilliant hitman film LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL, but ultimately accepted it was a mythical beast we would never see.

As it turns out, that unicorn can be spotted at theaters this weekend, but hiding in a different form. Besson and protege Olivier Megaton had once intended a LEON follow-up called MATHILDA, but that eventually transformed into COLOMBIANA.

The explosively named director tells The Playlist: “Ten years ago we decided to make MATHILDA, which was the PROFESSIONAL sequel, but we couldn’t do it because of the evolution of a lot of things – about Natalie [Portman], about [estranged distributor] Gaumont. Luc tried to do this movie again and again—he proposed it to me 12 years ago. But when we decided to change the script and to make another movie with a revenge story like ‘Mathilda,’ he had to give up everything about Mathilda.”

While we watch that action and ponder what could have been, Megaton will be working on TAKEN 2, which he admits interested him because it will shoot in Istanbul. Another reason? The first movie’s awkward kidnap victim Maggie Grace will apparently kick some ass this time: “I don’t want to be the specialist of girl action heroes, but that is the real point of me taking TAKEN 2.”

Meanwhile, you can check out Zoe Saldana in this COLOMBIANA featurette, which details how a woman who weighs less than some domestic pets turned herself into a killing machine.