From her multiple appearances as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to her recent turn as Major Mira Killian in Ghost in the Shell, Scarlett Johansson has become one of Hollywoods top action actresses over the last decade. Of particular note is her 2014 movie Lucy, which was an astounding box office hit, making more than $463 million worldwide, over 10 times its budget. A sequel has been discussed for several years, and earlier this week it was reported that Lucy 2 was finally moving forward. However, now director Luc Besson has denied such claims, saying:
For the record: No I'm not preparing Lucy 2. Neither yesterday nor tomorrow.
Taking to his Facebook page, Luc Besson slammed the reports that Lucy 2 is finally entering development, calling it "fake news" towards the end of his post critiquing journalists. What's interesting about all this is that the news Besson is responding to didn't emerge from an out-of-the-blue rumor. The information came from Mark Shmuger, the CEO of EuropaCorp, the production company that Besson co-founded. Last week, Shmuger revealed that EuropaCorp was developing Lucy 2, adding that Besson has written the script. If anything, Besson should take issue with Shmuger announcing that publicly. Given how professionally close those two are, you would think there'd be more communication concerning the status of such a project.
Warning: SPOILERS for Lucy are ahead!
2014's Lucy followed Scarlett Johasson's eponymous character discovering that her brain activity was increasing after a unique combination of drugs was absorbed into her bloodstream. With enhanced physical capabilities and new psychokinetic powers, she became a superhuman, and towards the end of the movie, she reached 100% brain capacity and downloaded herself into a computer mainframe, with her "consciousness" now being stored on a flash drive.
With an ending like that, it's hard to imagine how a compelling sequel could be delivered to the masses, but there's nonetheless been on-and-off talk about Lucy 2. That's not to say that a sequel couldn't someday become a reality (especially if Besson did indeed pen a script), but for now, Besson has made it clear that he's not doing any work to make that happen. It's also worth pointing out that despite Besson's most recent movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, earning mixed reviews and underperforming commercially, the director is keen on making sequels to the sci-fi tale, so his focus on those stories could be why he isn't pouring any time into Lucy 2.
If there's any change of plans regarding Lucy 2, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know about it. In the meantime, you can see Scarlett Johansson on the big screen next in Avengers: Infinity War, which opens on May 4, 2018. Don't forget to also look through our 2017 and 2018 movie premiere guides to see what's being theatrically released over the next year.
