In an ideal world, Andrew Stanton would have helmed an entire John Carter trilogy, with sequels Princess of Mars and Warlord of Mars arriving in the aftermath of the opening installment to round out an action-packed intergalactic franchise that did one of sci-fi’s most iconic properties cinematic justice.
Of course, that didn’t turn out to be the case, with the mega budget adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ seminal work instead going down in the history books as one of the heftiest box office bombs in history, with Disney losing an estimated $200 million after watching the project tank in a ball of commercial flames.
In the decade since, though, it would be an understatement to say that John Carter has wormed its way into the hearts and minds of fans everywhere, to the extent that it can now be justifiably dubbed as a genuine cult classic. Leading man Taylor Kitsch was hit harder than most by the film’s failure, especially when the additional failure of Battleship ruined his hopes of becoming the breakout star of 2012, but he admitted to ScreenRant that he’s thrilled his contributions are still being talked about today.
“Aww, thanks man. I appreciate you guys’ support too. I’m always flattered. That showed me, and I learned an incredible amount on that movie. I still have great relationships with that movie, which says a ton. I have no ill will whatsoever, I learned a lot, man. And took some big strides personally and professionally through that. It hurt, obviously, at the time, but in retrospect, I wouldn’t change a thing, to be honest. It is what it is, we all have those moments…It’s fun when people stop and talk about JC and their kids, they watch it with their kids and whatnot. That’s what it was for, you know, it was fun.”
Disney don’t even hold the rights to the property anymore, having allowed them to revert back to the Burroughs estate, so it could be a while before we see another live-action version, if we even get one at all. At least we’ll always have John Carter, then, a bold and ambitious world-building epic that deserved much better than it got.