THE IRON GIANT 2 | Trailer 2024 |
Get ready for an unforgettable holiday adventure with The Iron Giant Reforged, hitting theaters this December 2024! One year after their emotional goodbye, Hogarth, played by rising star Noah Jupe, is stunned when the Giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) makes a spectacular return. Brace yourself for an exhilarating journey filled with heart, humor, and high-stakes heroism as old friends reunite to face new dangers!
The Iron Giant is often considered to be a masterpiece of modern animation. The 1999 film, directed by Brad Bird, is an adaptation of a novel from 1958 called “The Iron Man,” written by Ted Hughes. The story is set in the 1950s and it follows a nine-year-old boy named Hogarth through his adventures with a giant metal robot that crash-landed near his home in Maine. Development of the film began in the early 1990s, inspired by Peter Townshend’s concept album based on the book. Eventually, Bird would come on board as the director. The film would be his directorial debut before he went on to direct the likes of The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
The film has become a cult classic and a favorite among an entire generation of animation fans. Despite the movie’s popularity and the over two decades since its release, there has never been a sequel. There was a clear direction for where a sequel to The Iron Giant could have gone, as the original author even wrote a sequel called “The Iron Woman” in the early ‘90s. However, The Iron Giant 2 never materialized. Here’s why that is:
The First Film’s Financial Failure
Considering how popular The Iron Giant is today, it’s hard to imagine the movie wasn’t a box office success, but unfortunately, that was the case. The Iron Giant was a substantial financial disappointment. The movie was produced on a budget of about $50 million, but it only managed to bring in $31 million in total box office receipts. There are several reasons to which The Iron Giant’s underperformance can be attributed, but the most notable is the lack of marketing from Warner Bros. The studio had lost faith in developing animated features after the failure of Quest for Camelot in 1998. As a result, they cut the budget for The Iron Giant and minimized the advertising for the movie. By the time it was released in theaters, few people were even aware of the film’s existence.
In spite of the lack of promotion for the film, The Iron Giant’s reception from both critics and audiences was very strong. Warner Bros. was already receiving criticism for its lack of faith in the movie in 1999, which led to increased marketing for the film’s home video release. The movie gradually began to gain more recognition and popularity through its home video release. Eventually, the television rights were also sold to Cartoon Network, which began airing the film regularly. With that, The Iron Giant’s popularity continued to grow until it reached the classic status it has.
Even though The Iron Giant gradually gained a following that really loved the film, it was still generally seen as a financial failure, even if the disappointment was lessened by the belated attention it received. Because of its financial failure, the prospect of a sequel to The Iron Giant was never really on the table. WB was more concerned with the other films they had in development, and they had little interest in revisiting the less-than-stellar performance of The Iron Giant. While there have been a few teases about a sequel over the years, nothing has really come together.
Brad Bird Isn’t Interested
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The initial financial disappointment is only one hurdle that an Iron Giant sequel would have to overcome. The other major factor that has held back a potential sequel is the actual filmmaking team behind the first outing. As the original film’s director, Bird would have to be a pretty instrumental piece of the puzzle when producing a sequel. Much of the heart of the first film is a direct result of Bird’s directorial abilities. However, Bird is just simply not interested in making a sequel to The Iron Giant.
The acclaimed director has been asked about the potential of an Iron Giant sequel on several occasions. In one specific instance, he replied to a fan asking about the film on Twitter by saying “There’s no need. The first one tells the story I set out to tell. Some stories actually end with THE END.” It’s not that Bird has an aversion to making a sequel to The Iron Giant specifically, but rather that the director often demonstrates a reluctance to make sequels to his films across the board. While he did make a sequel to The Incredibles, that is the only time he has ever revisited one of the stories he has told. On the press tour for that film, he reiterated his hesitation toward making sequels by telling io9 “I’m told I need to do an Iron Giant 2, and I’m told I need to remake everything that I’ve made and no one apparently wants anything new anymore. I’m a little at odds with society on that. I would like to do some new things.”
Will It Ever Happen?
While you can never say never when it comes to these things, it seems like the chances of an Iron Giant sequel being made are pretty slim. It has been nearly 25 years since the film was released, and at this point, the film seems to have been relegated to being a cult classic. While it does still have a large audience of fans who hold the film close to their hearts, The Iron Giant is the kind of movie that might just be best left alone. It works well on its own two feet. There’s really not much of a need to revisit that story, and any attempt to do so at this point would feel like little more than a weak attempt to capitalize on people’s nostalgia.
For anyone hoping to see more of The Iron Giant, the only avenue through which that is going to happen at this point is when the film is referenced by other movies. The Iron Giant himself famously showed up in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One just a few years ago. The lovable robot also made an appearance in the Space Jam sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, in 2021, though that film wasn’t the best. At the end of the day, Iron Giant fans will likely just have to be happy with the one great film they already have.
