If a studio adapts a widely-known and massively popular property into a movie so bad that no less of an authority than the star called it “a piece of sh*t,” then what’s the best method of how to proceed? In the case of 20th Century Fox and Hitman, the obvious answer was to mount a rapid-fire reboot.
Incredibly, though, Agent 47 fared even worse than its predecessor by earning less money at the box office and scoring an even harsher response from both critics and fans of the long-running console favorite, making it just one of many video game IPs to have been subjected to at least two disastrous live-action adaptations.
Any sane person would have simply abandoned all hope of trying to turn the bald-headed assassin into the star of a viable venture, then, but not Disney. An episodic spin on Hitman was announced all the way back in November of 2017 through 20th Century Fox, with John Wick scribe Derek Kolstad set to write the pilot and serve as an executive producer. Things went radio silent after that, but the project might just be stirring again.
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office‘s website, filings have recently been submitted for Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman: Death Awaits, and Hitman: Absolution, under the purpose of providing “entertainment services in the nature of a television or multimedia program.” It’s not much, but it’s something, although whether or not that’s a good or bad thing is entirely up for debate.
Do we need a third iteration of Hitman? Almost certainly not, but we might just end up getting it anyway.