After laying the groundwork for “The Boys” eleven years ago, Charlize Theron’s $629 million superhero film is ready for a sequel.

In 2008, Will Smith shocked the world by playing a dysfunctional, surly-faced superhero in the film Hancock. Charlize Theron now wishes to revive him!

Charlize Theron, for example, is pleased to be the star of Hancock, which is arguably the most bizarre superhero film in an industry full of them. There is a place for movies outside of Marvel and DC where movies like The Crow and Kick-Ass can flourish without being trampled underfoot by the comic book industry. These projects range from epic (Avengers: Endgame) to vicious (The Dark Knight), from disturbing (The Boys) to hilarious (Deadpool), from solemn (Joker) to cringeworthy (Batman & Robin).

Will Smith in and as Hancock.

However, for Charlize Theron, the opportunity to star in Hancock isn’t some form of wish fulfillment in an era when every Hollywood artist seems to be bitten by the superhero bug. The Oscar-winning actress has, by 2024, appeared in two of the three existing superhero franchises – as Clea in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and an in-universe fictional version of Stormfront in The Boys.

Such a diverse cache of roles and experiences would have evaded the actress, if not for Hancock – the dysfunctional superhero film starring Will Smith.

Charlize Theron Discusses a Hancock Sequel

Charlize Theron in Hancock.

When Hancock came out in theaters, the world was just getting acquainted with the idea of superhero films. Iron Man had just come out 2 months prior to the Will Smith action comedy and Christopher Nolan peaked with the Heath Ledger masterpiece, The Dark Knight, which came out 16 days after Hancock.

Sandwiched in the middle of two timeless epics, Will Smith‘s superhero flick had little chance of surviving on its own. Despite a star-studded cast comprising Academy Award-winning Charlize Theron, twice nominated (at the time) Smith, and an endearing Jason Bateman, Hancock drowned faster than the Titanic, although its erasure from common memory failed to be as tragic.

11 years later, Theron – who was busy kicking ass and taking names with films like Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard – spoke out on her wish to work on a Hancock sequel, saying: “We’ll be superheroes with our walkers, you know. And I’ll still go! I’ll still make that movie; I would do it in a heartbeat.”

Despite failing to impress the critics at the time and simmering in a lousy 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Hancock managed to cash in $629.4 million at the box office [via Box Office Mojo] – which was impressive for a film that had barely two weekends to shine before The Dark Knight came knocking. The movie’s poor reception at the time later shifted as the Will Smith flick became somewhat of a cult classic in the underbelly of the superhero industry.

Hancock 2: The Sequel That Never Was

Will Smith in Hancock (2008).

Director Peter Berg embarked on an enthusiastic quest to start a sequel a year after Hancock’s premiere. There were reports that all three of the original stars would return, and two screenwriters, Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara, were hired. In addition to continuing Ray Embrey’s journey after the previous movie, the sequel aimed to add a new immortal deity to the mix and compete with Will Smith and Charlize Theron’s dynamic.

All plans for the follow-up were abandoned by the end of 2009, and Hancock 2 was never again brought up in public. The audience sympathized with the lost chance to witness the dysfunctional superhero in action once more, and they now backed the idea of a sequel.

The audience was shown a darker aspect of the people-saving industry that Marvel and DC neglected to convey on screen when they saw Will Smith’s Hancock wreaking havoc in his wake, obviously causing more harm than good despite his good intentions, and acting like a superhero with a crazily careless attitude. Ten years later, Hancock’s goal is realized in The Boys, which unabashedly rated R for its frequently terrified and outraged audience.

In the meantime, neither Will Smith nor Peter Berg ever made a concerted effort to get Hancock 2 approved, even as viewer interest in the film increased. In a time when the superhero industry is already overdone, a novel perspective that is distinct from the comic book industry can inspire people to come out of their shells and put the “Superhero fatigue” plague behind them.