10 Years Later, a Controversial Superhero Franchise is Getting a Big Reboot
The ass-kicking mantle has been passed.
2023 is gripped by reboot fever. Frasier is quipping again, iCarly is vlogging again, and Scott Pilgrim is getting an animated makeover. But while it’s a great time to relaunch an old story, it’s also a great time to tell new superhero stories. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is chugging along, the DC Universe is eyeing a reboot, and Prime Video’s Boys Universe is somehow lampooning the giant franchises while being one itself. Circumstances are perfect for a long-awaited reboot, and now it may finally be happening... just not how you think.
During a New York Comic-Con panel for his upcoming movie Argylle, Kick-Ass director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn provided a hopeful update about a possible reboot of the superhero series. “Kick-Ass changed people’s perception of what a superhero film is. We’re doing it again,” Entertainment Weekly reports Vaughn saying. “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!”
Matthew Vaughn at New York Comic-Con on October 14.
Kick-Ass was based on the comic book series written by Mark Millar, which underwent its own reboot in 2018. Millar’s new series focuses on Patience Lee, a Black veteran who takes on a superheroic alter-ego. Essentially, the comic book has provided a built-in reboot premise should Vaughn choose to adapt it for his upcoming movie.
Regardless of the substance of Vaughn’s script, this is the perfect time for a Kick-Ass reboot. While the first two movies riffed on the superhero movies of a pre-Avengers world, we’re now entrenched in a world where superhero franchises aren’t afraid to knock off half the Earth’s population or explore a complicated multiverse. Life as a superhero is even more complicated than it used to be.
Patience Lee in the Kick-Ass relaunch.
Vaughn has been speculating about a Kick-Ass reboot since 2021, and some rights issues he spoke about with Collider at the time have since cleared up, making this as good a time as any to get going. Kick-Ass is a superhero franchise that picked apart the genre with plenty of gore and profanity well before that approach became popular, but while two movies make it nothing more than just a footnote, a third chapter released a decade later could cement it in superhero history alongside the big boys — like The Boys.
