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Will Smith’s efforts to return Hollywood to the fabled era in which people still mostly kind of liked Will Smith movies continues apace this week, with Deadline reporting that Smith recently sat down with a well-known Twitch streamer to announce that he’s working on a Hancock sequel, including efforts to lure Zendaya into the “franchise.” “Zendaya [is] being approached for a role in Hancock 2,” Smith told xQc and his 12 million or so followers by way of enticement, even though trying to make hay out of “being approached” is kind of like saying you’re dating someone just because you sent them a message on the apps. And also that person is Zendaya, one of the biggest movie stars in the world. And you’re Will Smith, in 2025. And it’s not dating, it’s taking time out of making Christopher Nolan and Luca Guadagnino movies to make another Hancock flick.
To be mildly fair to Smith, it’s worth remembering that, despite a mixed critical reception, superhero deconstruction Hancock actually did pretty good money when it came out back in 2008, bringing in nearly $630 million in theaters. (Between that and starting Breaking Bad, co-screenwriter Vince Gilligan had a pretty good year!) Smith and Peter Berg (who ended up in the directing chair after two other guys got burnt out of it) have talked in the past about making a sequel, and Charlize Theron said she was game as recently as 2020. But that first movie was also an interesting but meandering hot mess, even without 17 years of baggage—and the concentrated hopes of the Will Smith Public Rehabilitation Project—hanging off of it. Still: Smith sounds excited!
Smith’s statements come not long after reports that he’d also been looking to revive his 2005 rom-com Hitch, which came to light after director Andy Tennant tried pitching his own sequel, only to find out Smith was way ahead of him, and uninterested in collaborating. (Oh, and also him once again waxing “What might have been” about being offered The Matrix; Smith’s really been reflecting on the past lately, although not in the way therapists usually mean.) Smith also promised that there’s a “really cool idea” for Hancock 2, which is nice to hear.
