Although she had been acting on the big screen from a young age, when Mark Millar's Kick-Ass came to the big screen in 2010, it made an instant star of Chloë Grace Moretz, who was only 13 at the time of the film's release into theaters. Kick-Ass opened doors for the actress, and of course she was going to return for the sequel, 2013's Kick-Ass 2. However, looking back, the actress now says the experience was a little bit of a disappointment for her, and she explained more about her feelings about Kick-Ass 2 in a recent panel, noting at the Provincetown Film Festival:
I love the franchise, I think the first movie was really, really special. I wish the second one had been handled in a little bit of a different way. Because I think we were all kind of looking forward to something a little different than what happened with it all.
The first Kick-Ass was notable for its R-rated nature and its black comedy sensibility. Plenty of fans got on board with the project, which was made on a middling budget, and went on to bring in over $96 million at the box office worldwide. That and solid reviews were just enough to earn the movie a sequel, a sequel that brought back Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass, Nic Cage as Big Daddy and Chloë Grace Moretz as Hitgirl. However, our own review of Kick-Ass 2 commented on the "choppy structure" of three separate storylines, and despite setting up for a third movie, that third movie was never made.
Speaking at the Provincetown Film Festival (via Indiewire), Chloë Grace Moretz went on to state that she would not get involved if a third movie would be made.
As much as I love the character of Hit-Girl, I think she lives and survives in Kick-Ass, and I kind of want to keep her there. I kinda wanna keep everyone's mind in Kick-Ass. So I don't think there will be a Kick-Ass 3, at least I don't think with Hit-Girl in it.
Hitgirl in particular's storyline is rough in Kick-Ass 2. Chloë Grace Moretz aged three years between the original movie and its sequel, and by the time the second film was coming together she was no longer an adolescent but a young woman. Personally, I think her storyline in the second movie really suffered because of her age change. By that time, Moretz was also the type of young woman who was taking big roles in projects like the Carrie remake and If I Stay and didn't really need to be propelled forward by the Kick-Ass franchise anymore. Although the actress does not seem excited about returning to play Hitgirl, more projects in the Kick-Ass universe were recently announced, and director Matthew Vaughn has mentioned previously that Kick-Ass and Hitgirl are going to be totally rebooted.
We'll have to wait and see what happens with the new projects; however, in the meantime, you can catch Chloë Grace Moretz in the upcoming R-rated flick Suspiria, which also stars Fifty Shades franchise actress Dakota Johnson. She's also voicing Wednesday Addams in the animated The Addams Family movie. Never say never, but it looks as if she's hung up the superheroine duds these days.
