Evangeline Lilly opened up about potential Real Steel sequel plans during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
The 2011 film is about Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a former boxer left in debt after losing a bet. Following the death of his ex-girlfriend, Kenton takes in his estranged son Max from his maternal aunt and uncle for the summer for the price of $100,000. While spending time together, Kenton decides that he wants to get back to the ring. As he hopes to pay off his debts, Kenton recruits the help of his friend Bailey and Max while they train an out-of-date robot named Atom.
Real Steel, which also stars Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, and Kevin Durand, generated $299.3 million worldwide. Lilly shared on Oct. 12th, while celebrating the movie’s tenth anniversary, the sci-fi didn’t have a sequel because of the “testosterone-driven” market tactic.
She said, “Real Steel is one of my favorite films I’ve ever been a part of. I thought there ought to have been a sequel because the film was so good and it was so beloved. But I know that the reason there wasn’t was because the film was marketed as this testosterone-driven, rah-rah, beat-him-up kind of macho movie for boys between the ages of 18 and 35. But in actuality, it was a beautiful, heartfelt father-son redemption story for the family to watch together. And families didn’t find the film until after it had gone to DVD at that point in time, and then streaming.So it wasn’t marketed to them, but had it been marketed to families, it would have most certainly had a sequel.”
Lilly added that although she is uncertain about the idea of a sequel because of how long it’s been since the release of the original film, she stated that if the director Shawn Levy has something planned, she is all for it.
“People love the film and I’m so happy because it is, like I said, one of my favorite films that I’ve ever done. Because it’s been so long, I don’t know now if I think a sequel would be a beautiful thing or if it would kind of tarnish the purity of what we made back then. It’s been ten years, but I really trust Shawn. I think he’s an amazing director, and he’s one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with. So if Shawn is doing something, I’m sure it’s going to be incredible.”
Reel Steel ended its dominating reign on Netflix this month after it was removed from the streaming app.