SPOILERS, for those of you who have found other things to watch besides WANTED in the last four years.
A sequel to the Mark Millar adaptation has been in the works for some time now, in part contending with the logistics of how to have the story progress alongside James McAvoy’s growing popularity. But the movie made $314 million worldwide, and so the sequelization process has been slow but steady. That being said, one of the biggest holdups has actually been the studio’s question of just what to do about Angelina Jolie’s character of Fox – what with her being dead and all, it’s a bit hard to have her name in the promotional material to bring in audiences again for the sequel. There was some talk of finding a way to resurrect her character, and with the healing milk pools shown in the first movie that was very possibly something which could happen in the world of WANTED. But Jolie has no doubt put her foot down and plainly decided not to return, because the sequel is now moving ahead without her in the picture at all. Which, with her being dead and all, is really just as well.
But here’s what co-screenwriter Derek Haas had to say about the status of the sequel’s script and the new female-centric plans for the franchise: “After the first movie came out, we were supposed to write the sequel. For various reasons, we didn’t connect with what Universal wanted to do creatively. A little bit of what Timur [Bekmambetov, director] wanted to do. So we just sort of bowed out gracefully.” But when multiple subsequent writers failed to live up to the studio’s hopes, 2011 rolled around and “We got that call that you always love as a screenwriter. ‘Can you guys please come back?’ We loved the world. That experience was great. We said, ‘Well here’s what we want to do with the sequel.’ And they said, ‘Okay.’ After four years, from a creative standpoint, it’s almost better, because we can pick up the story four years later. It’s ‘Where is Wesley four years after the events of the first movie?'”
And on that note, where is Wesley after four years? “The only thing I can tell you is that Wesley is now, four years later, recruiting a young woman who is in his situation in the first movie. She’s got a sh**ty life. He’s sort of in the Fox role. This new girl is brought into the world.” So there you have it. Two drafts in means we may be getting closer to the reality of a sequel to WANTED. More as we hear it.
