2010’s Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn reveals development on a potential cinematic reboot of the teenage vigilante.
Vaughn appeared at the 2023 New York Comic Con for a special panel discussion of his spy comedy Argylle. While discussing the impact Kick-Ass had on his career, the director teased a new take on the character as one of his upcoming projects.
“Kick-Ass changed people’s perception of what a superhero film is. We’re doing it again,” Vaughn said via Entertainment Weekly. “None of the other characters from the other Kick-Ass are in it, though we’d like to have them back after the reboot. I can’t really talk about it, but it’s fun!”
Who is Kick-Ass?
Based on the Icon Comics series created by Millar and John Romita, Jr., 2010’s Kick-Ass told the tale of Staten Island, NY teenager Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who decides to become a real-life superhero. Donning a scuba suit and armed with batons, Lizewski takes on the persona of Kick-Ass and joins forces with eleven-year-old Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) to take down crime boss Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). Despite soft box office results, Kick-Ass received a positive reception from critics and gained cult status from audiences on home video. Vaughn produced the less-successful Kick-Ass 2 in 2013, with Taylor-Johnson and Moretz reprising their roles.
In 2018, Vaughn teased the Kick-Ass reboot under his Marv Studios banner while simultaneously announcing plans for a Hit-Girl solo movie set in the character’s adult years. The Hit-Girl project has not seen further developments since Vaughn’s announcement. In 2021, Vaughn reiterated to Collider about his intention to reboot Kick-Ass once the movie rights reverted to him. “It’s so fucking nuts that I can’t talk about it,” Vaughn said. “But we’ve got that ready to go. All the rights revert back in two years and then we’re going to reboot it where people will be like, he is insane.”
Vaughn’s next movie, Argylle, opens in theaters on February 2, 2024.
