Good news: a new movie set in the rebooted Kick-Ass universe is now filming. Bad news: you might need a PhD in cinematic universe-ology to unpack it all.
Let’s start with the basic facts: As per Variety, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is producing a movie titled The Stuntman about two brothers who become stuntmen. It’s set to be directed by Damien Walters.
Here’s where it gets confusing. The Stuntman is actually the second film in a trilogy. The trouble is, the first movie – School Fight – has not been released. The third movie, inexplicably, is going to be a reboot of Kick-Ass, the 2010 film that saw Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Dave attempting to becoming a superhero under the tutelage of Nicolas Cage's Big Daddy.
“The trilogy will be School Fight, [The Stuntman], and then Kick-Ass, and they’re all connected,” Vaughn previously told Collider of what he calls a "meta universe", clearing up absolutely none of the confusion surrounding the projects.
According to Variety, School Fight tells the story of "a teenager who gets into a fight with a love rival at school." It was filmed around 2022 but the final release has never surfaced. Full plot details on The Stuntman are under wraps and we’re still none the wiser on how it’ll all tie into a Kick-Ass reboot.
"Kick-Ass changed people’s perception of what a superhero film is. We’re doing it again," Vaughn previously said during a New York Comic Con panel (H/T Entertainment Weekly). "None of the other characters from the other Kick-Ass are in it, though we’d like to have them back after the reboot. I can’t really talk about it, but it’s fun!"
In terms of his upcoming projects, Vaughn told the Inside Total Film podcast and 12DOVE that Kick-Ass needs to get moving soon because it’s "so of its time."
"So we have to make Kingsman 3 before Taron [Egerton] and Colin [Firth] are just too old. There is the reboot of Kick-Ass, which the idea is so of its time that we have to get on with it as well," Vaughn said. "We would like to make the next Argylle and then I have a musical which I'm prepping at the moment as well."
So, yeah, let’s maybe [stern email voice] circle back on this one in a few months? By then, we might have some idea of what the shape of this Kick-Ass trilogy looks like.
Right now, it’s one unreleased film, one movie currently filming, then an actual Kick-Ass movie. We’ve seen less confusing plans for a cinematic universe or "connected" trilogy, we’ll be honest.
For more, check out the upcoming movies coming your way in 2024.
