Will Smith surprised the world as a surly-faced, dysfunctional superhero in the 2008 movie, Hancock. Now, Charlize Theron wants to bring him back!
Written by: Diya
Reviewed by: Swagata
In an industry saturated with superhero movies, Hancock is perhaps the weirdest of them all, and Charlize Theron, for one, is proud to be its star. With an abundance of projects that range from epic (Avengers: Endgame) to vicious (The Dark Knight), from disturbing (The Boys) to hilarious (Deadpool), from solemn (Joker) to cringeworthy (Batman & Robin), there exists a space for films outside Marvel and DC for films like The Crow and Kick-Ass to thrive without getting stampeded on by the comic book industry.
However, for Charlize Theron, the opportunity to star in Hancock isn’t some form of wish fulfillment in an era when every Hollywood artist seems to be bitten by the superhero bug. The Oscar-winning actress has, by 2024, appeared in two of the three existing superhero franchises – as Clea in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and an in-universe fictional version of Stormfront in The Boys.
Such a diverse cache of roles and experiences would have evaded the actress, if not for Hancock – the dysfunctional superhero film starring Will Smith.
Charlize Theron Discusses a Hancock Sequel
When Hancock came out in theaters, the world was just getting acquainted with the idea of superhero films. Iron Man had just come out 2 months prior to the Will Smith action comedy and Christopher Nolan peaked with the Heath Ledger masterpiece, The Dark Knight, which came out 16 days after Hancock.
Sandwiched in the middle of two timeless epics, Will Smith‘s superhero flick had little chance of surviving on its own. Despite a star-studded cast comprising Academy Award-winning Charlize Theron, twice nominated (at the time) Smith, and an endearing Jason Bateman, Hancock drowned faster than the Titanic, although its erasure from common memory failed to be as tragic.
11 years later, Theron – who was busy kicking ass and taking names with films like Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard – spoke out on her wish to work on a Hancock sequel, saying: “We’ll be superheroes with our walkers, you know. And I’ll still go! I’ll still make that movie; I would do it in a heartbeat.”
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Despite failing to impress the critics at the time and simmering in a lousy 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Hancock managed to cash in $629.4 million at the box office [via Box Office Mojo] – which was impressive for a film that had barely two weekends to shine before The Dark Knight came knocking. The movie’s poor reception at the time later shifted as the Will Smith flick became somewhat of a cult classic in the underbelly of the superhero industry.
Hancock 2: The Sequel That Never Was
A year after Hancock premiered, director Peter Berg launched an enthusiastic mission to get a sequel off the ground. Two scriptwriters – Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara – were brought on board along with rumors of all three of the original stars returning. The sequel planned to introduce a new immortal god in the mix, lending competition to Will Smith and Charlize Theron’s dynamic while also continuing the story of Ray Embrey after the first film.
By the tail-end of 2009, all plans for the sequel were dropped and Hancock 2 was never mentioned in public again. The missed opportunity to see the dysfunctional superhero in action again generated sympathy among the audience who now supported the vision of a second film.
Seeing Will Smith’s Hancock leaving destruction in his wake, clearly doing more harm than good despite his well-meaning intentions, and his wildly cavalier attitude as a superhero, showed the audience a darker side of the people-saving business that Marvel and DC failed to communicate on the screen. A decade later, The Boys fulfills the vision that Hancock started by going unapologetically R-rated on its often shocked and horrified audience.
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Meanwhile, despite the spike in audience interest, neither Peter Berg nor Will Smith ever actively tried to get Hancock 2 greenlit. In an era that already suffers from an over-indulgence in the superhero business, a refreshing take that stands apart from the comic book industry could very well bring people out of their shells and forget about the ‘Superhero fatigue’ epidemic.
Hancock is available to buy/rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.