Real Steel, one of Netflix’s most well-liked releases, was a major topic of conversation last year after it entered the streaming service. Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a struggling former boxer who now makes a pitiful living as a robot boxing controller, in the film. When they discover a sparring robot that could help Charlie end his losing trend and become the next world champion, he and his estranged son Max get back together. Shawn Levy, the director, claims that there have been discussions about a potential sequel once more as a result of the film’s revival in popular culture.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, Shawn Levy attributed the flurry of inquiries about a prospective Real Steels sequel to Netflix:
“It is amazing how streaming gives people an opportunity to rediscover [things]. Obviously, it happened with Cobra Kai and what happened to them when they moved from YouTube to Netflix. When Real Steel was on Netflix in 2020, and it was in the top trending titles, it really showed us, ‘Oh wait a second, that audience is still there, and maybe we can even grow it’. Hugh and I have definitely, we have seen each other recently, and I’m not gonna lie and say it didn’t come up.”
After the first Real Steel was released ten years ago, it’s exciting to know that a brand-new audience has discovered it, especially since we suggested it during the epidemic last fall. Is it now finally time for a Real Steel sequel to begin production? Added Levy:
“It is remarkable how frequently this question gets asked. It had died, and while it’s not in active development right now, these are the kind of itches that Hugh and I are feeling more intensely and might need to scratch. What’s been interesting is we’re approaching ten years since Real Steel came out, the fan love has not waned. And it’s been this constant reminder to Hugh and I that, ‘Oh wait a second, that movie had something special in it. And maybe we should revisit those characters in that world’. So anything’s possible.”
The Challenge of Making Real Steel 2
Making Real Steel 2 at this time may be plagued by the fact that Dakota Goyo, the young actor who played Hugh Jackman’s son Max, is no longer a child. Is there a compelling tale to be told about an older Max? This month, Goyo turns 22; nevertheless, he hasn’t made an appearance since 2014. What would the sequel be about if the father-son dynamic that drives the movie’s core were absent? Maybe that’s one of the problems with trying to solve a sequel now.
Levy stated in 2016 that due to the film’s positive audience testing, development on a sequel began six months before the film’s actual release. But Levy clarified the problem they encountered when attempting to tell a story:
“The simple truth, the most concise truth I can express, is that it proved, and it has proven, really hard to come up with a sequel that doesn’t feel like a re-hash of the first movie. Yeah, people wanted to see Atom beat Zeus, I would love to see Atom beat Zeus, but you don’t want to retell the story of kind of an alienation between Charlie and Max because that is really the plot of the first movie.”
Exactly. The main reason Real Steel works so effectively is because of Charlie and Max, who serve as the film’s heart. It’s not like Rocky, where the boxer is the main character, so you have both the human element and the excitement of sports in one bundle. You need a distraction from Atom to keep you interested. Levy said that there have been discussions about attempting to write an Atom-centered prequel:
“One area that I still would love to explore is that notion of how was Atom built? What is it about his design that might have embedded some artificial or organic intelligence and consciousness, such that he is self-aware to some extent? So all I’ll say is, we’ve attempted it a few times with a number of writers, and no draft got me, Hugh, and Steven all there to a yes in the same moment. It all felt like it wasn’t quite enough to promise a new story and a new movie.”
That doesn’t seem like the best course of action, so hopefully Levy or someone else can provide an alternative.
