It’s been roughly two years since Atomic Blonde exploded onto the scene, but the hopes for a second film have persisted in the time that has passed. Those fires are equally stoked between the fanning of the creative team behind the film, as well as the fans themselves, which makes director David Leitch’s latest news on Atomic Blonde 2 all the more rewarding. As it turns out, the sequel might be headed to streaming.
David Leitch revealed this twist in a recent interview, with the following caveats:
I think there is [still talk of a sequel]. A streaming service is into it. I don’t know all the details. I was a work-for-hire on that movie, but at the end of the day, Kelly McCormick – my producing partner and my wife – she will be involved, I’m sure, as a producer. That’s how I got the gig in the first place. We’ll see.
With various new streaming services forming their content libraries, and existing titans like Netflix wanting to shore up their own exclusives in the film world, Atomic Blonde certainly has no shortage of homes. But there are two possibilities that seem to be the best fit when it comes to Atomic Blonde 2 becoming a reality.
On the one hand, the studio that David Leitch has worked with not only on Atomic Blonde, but also on his most recent film, Hobbs & Shaw, just happens to be under the same umbrella: Universal Pictures. As we’ve seen with moves like spending a nice chunk of change to get the rights of The Office, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform is hungry for its own original content.
That’s just one sensible path for Atomic Blonde 2 to take towards finding a streaming home, should the news that David Leitch has delivered to Slashfilm turn out to be true. However, with the director being attached to The Division adaptation that was acquired by Netflix, there’s a possibility that Charlize Theron’s Lorraine Broughton could be returning to the fanfare of that familiar drum beat.
In its 2017 release, Atomic Blonde made around $100 million on a $30 million budget, so it was certainly a pretty sizable hit. It would make sense that streaming services would be interested in trying to make Atomic Blonde 2 happen, but judging by the time that’s passed in-between films, those seem like the best, most prosperous options for this turn of events to take hold.
We’ll see how things develop, and whether or not David Leitch decides to stay involved as the franchise director to Atomic Blonde into its sequel, as this story develops. In the meantime, Hobbs & Shaw is in theaters now, with Charlize Theron returning to the action fold with Fast 9, which is in production now for a May 22, 2020 release date.
