Based on nothing but the talent involved on either side of the camera, there was no way that this year’s high concept action movie Nobody was going to be anything other than a massively entertaining slice of genre cinema.
Director Ilya Naishuller made his feature directorial debut on the insane first-person sci-fi thriller Hardcore Henry, which has already become a firm favorite among aficionados, while the script came from longtime John Wick scribe Derek Kolstad. Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw filmmaker David Leitch was one of the producers through the 87North banner he founded with Wick co-creator Chad Stahelski, so the set pieces were always going to be on point.
Thrown in Bob Odenkirk as an unlikely badass, which he proved to be phenomenally good at, and you’ve got a recipe for both success and a potential franchise. Nobody opened theatrically in March when the pandemic was still limiting the industry, but nonetheless managed to haul in $61 million on a $16 million budget while going down a storm with audiences and critics alike, currently boasting a solid 84% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In a new interview, Naishuller confirmed that Kolstad is in the early stages of starting to crack the script for a second outing, which is exciting news for those desperate to see Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell back on their screens.
“There’s plenty of stories that can be told in this world, with the character Hutch. I know that Derek has begun work on the sequel.”
After suburban father Hutch secretly revealed himself to be an elite government operative and blasted his way through the enemies trying to take him down, Nobody was tied up in a neat narrative bow. However, the door was still left wide open for further adventures, and the mid-credits scene set the stage for where it could be headed, so it’s clearly something Universal are keen to see happen.