Netflix have made it abundantly clear that they’re actively looking for a marquee franchise of their own that has the potential to rival what the rest of Hollywood’s major studios have at their disposal, and based on their successes over the last few months, it looks like there’s no shortage of candidates.
The buzz surrounding Michael Bay’s 6 Underground may have dropped off a cliff, but a sequel is still widely expected, while Charlize Theron has already admitted that all of the major players are game for a follow-up to The Old Guard. And now, based on the early numbers alone, it looks as though Project Power could also be set to spawn a multi-film series.
The $85 million superhero blockbuster is scoring solid reviews from critics and has already become the most popular title on Netflix at the moment despite only arriving on Friday, with the ending deliberately leaving the door open for further adventures. Watching Project Power gives off the distinct impression that the filmmakers were holding back on diving deeper into the premise and keeping one eye on sequels, too, and we’ve now heard that the streaming service’s latest in-house original could be set to launch an entire universe.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources that told us Netflix were developing a prequel series for The Witcher and that an Extraction sequel had been green-lit – as well as more movies, the company are also thinking about a spinoff series for Project Power that would expand and flesh out the story introduced in the first film, showing how a drug that gives users superhuman abilities for five minutes at a time has the potential to change the entire world.
Out of all the major Netflix original movies, Project Power is the one that lends itself perfectly to the idea of a TV series, and filling in some gaps in the mythology would both guarantee huge viewership numbers and build anticipation towards the inevitable feature-length sequel. Should it end up happening, that is.
At the moment, we’re told that the idea is for new characters to be the leads with familiar faces from the first film perhaps making cameos, but we’ll stress again that this is just something that the streaming site is considering at the moment – meaning there’s no guarantee it’ll happen. That being said, given the success that Project Power is currently seeing, they’d be foolish not to do more with the property.