Hancock was irrational before Deadpool broke the conventions of the superhero genre. Will Smith plays the crass and crudely spoken Hancock, an alcoholic antihero who can’t seem to stop engaging in self-destructive behaviour, garnering the enmity of the entire city of Los Angeles for his routine misdeeds that seem to cause more harm than good. But when he saves Ray Embrey’s life (played by Jason Bateman), a marketing whiz assigned to revamp Hancock’s public image, his life takes a turn for the better.
Despite the unappreciated superhero movie receiving lukewarm reviews from critics who frequently thought it fell short of its potential, it unquestionably outperformed the studio’s revenue projections. Hancock, which made $629 million worldwide, was the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2008.
Due to Hancock’s movie office success, viewers believed that a sequel was imminent. In fact, the movie’s director, Peter Berg, even gave fans a major spoiler for the potential sequel in 2009 (via Screen Rant). Additionally, Charlize Theron has openly expressed her desire to see Hancock 2 come to pass to ComicBook.com. Nevertheless, despite the tremendous support for Hancock’s bumbling return to Hollywood, the chances of a sequel becoming a reality seem less and less likely with each passing year.
Let’s quickly examine some of the factors that could prevent the release of Hancock 2.
Hancock 2 has too many cooks in the kitchen
Peter Berg explained the delay as being caused by an issue with creative conflict in an interview with HitFix (via Screen Rant). He acknowledged that “that specific kitchen has so many cooks who are so busy, and Will’s [Smith] kind of taken time off to be with his kids.” In relation to him, Smith, and the producers, he added, “to bring us all together so we can converse and eventually come to a decision? Never have you encountered a gathering of people who will struggle to reach consensus on anything.”
In light of this, it begs the question as to whether Berg encountered any difficulties working with the two writers, Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara, whom Sony had engaged to assist in writing the script for Hancock 2 back in 2009. (via MTV). The development of this sequel may not have fallen through for merely the speculative cause of a conflict in the writer’s room, which is again only speculation based on Berg’s comments.
Timing is everything, especially in Hollywood … and that’s a big deal for Hancock 2
Without a doubt, the performers’ careers have surged since Hancock’s debut. A decade ago, Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron were already well-known actors. But if anything, their fame has grown even more, as have their individual filming schedules, making it more difficult to plan a time for Hancock 2 to be made. Even back in 2012, when Berg said in an interview with Comic Book Movie (via SlashFilm) that timing was a problem “We’re all interested, but we can’t seem to enter the same room at the same time, despite our best efforts. I believe a sequel will be made; it’s just a matter of when. We did hold a number of meetings last year and began to thrash out an idea for one; Will Smith really had the idea.”
It is difficult to predict when the door will finally open for Hancock’s original cast. But given how much time has gone, it’s possible that the world will have to wait an extremely long period for Hancock to make a comeback on the big screen.
