By and large, it’s the worst comic book adaptations that tend to get ignored by audiences to die a slow and painful death at the box office, which in turn makes Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World one of the very few exceptions that proves the rule.
Did the visually dazzling and whip-smart romantic action comedy deserve to earn less money from theaters than Halle Berry’s Catwoman, Dark Phoenix, Morbius, and Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four? Absolutely not, and to suggest otherwise is borderline sacrilege, but it still tanked thunderously after failing to even clear $50 million on an $80 million budget.
Cult classic status was secured from the second it released, though, and Netflix is getting the band back together in short order when animated follow-up Scott Pilgrim Takes Off premieres on Nov. 17. In what’s surely not an accident, either, the streaming service will be allowing its subscribers to get reacquainted when the franchise’s failed opening chapter returns to the content library on Nov. 1.
Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza, and Anna Kendrick are just a selection of the big names to be returning from the original, and if you haven’t seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in a while – or at all, for that matter – then Netflix is handing you homework on a silver platter ahead of the anime-inspired successor’s arrival.
Hopefully Scott Pilgrim Takes Off doesn’t see history repeat itself and flop among users worldwide, but we’d feel confident enough in saying that most likely won’t be the case given its predecessor’s reputation and the stacked roster of big names.