How Angelina Jolie Reportedly Killed off a Sequel to ‘Wanted’
Angelina Jolie added the action thriller Wanted to her long list of action films. A potential sequel was soon planned for the movie after its success, but Jolie might have played a part in its cancellation.
Angelina Jolie refused to come back for a ‘Wanted’ sequel
Spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie.
Wanted was a 2008 adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name starring X-Men alum James McAvoy. In it, Jolie played a member of a team of assassins called The Fraternity.
Jolie’s character ends up not living through the movie. But in the initial script, she wasn’t supposed to die at all. Jolie felt killing off her assassin was the right thing to do given what was revealed about her organization, so she had the script rewritten.
“In the original, she doesn’t kill herself,” Jolie once told MTV News. “I actually changed the ending. I said, ‘If she was to find out she had killed people unjustly and was a part of something that wasn’t fair, then she should take her own life.'”
This decision would later come back to shoot the studio in the foot when they were developing plans for a Wanted sequel. For the second film, they hoped to write around Jolie’s on-screen death to bring her character back. But the Tomb Raider star wasn’t sold on the idea, especially when she was playing a somewhat similar character in Salt.
“Being dead makes it difficult,” she once said at a press conference according to Coming Soon. “They were [trying to bring me back] but I kind of feel like if I die in a movie, I should die actually. I’m that way, and that character is not as complex as Salt. It would just be doing the exact same thing in another movie, so it’s not that interesting to me.”
Vulture once reported that Jolie pulling out of the sequel effectively killed off the idea
Why Kristen Stewart was interested in replacing Angelina Jolie in ‘Wanted’
Although it would be a stretch to call Stewart an action star like Jolie was, the actor had been used to headlining thrillers herself. She starred in features like American Ultra and the Charlie’s Angel reboot, which flexed her muscles as a potential action lead. If it was possible, the Twilight alum would’ve liked to do another action role in a possible Wanted sequel.
Jolie originally decided to do the picture since it was different than other action films she’d seen at the time.
“I came across this script. One, it has a great story. A lot of action movies are kind of lacking in that. It’s got a dark sense of humor and it’s wild, and the stunts — I knew that they were going to be done in an original way,” Jolie once told MTV News.
Stewart had similar reasons for wanting to do the movie’s unmade sequel. There were rumors that she was already looked at to replace Jolie as the second movie’s lead assassin. Stewart didn’t confirm the rumors, but the actor did share she would’ve been more than excited to accept the opportunity.
“Wanted was a great movie, like, James McAvoy makes that movie different than most other action movies because he’s a real guy, and I feel like most action movies don’t have that. So if it had that [element], definitely. But I wouldn’t just want to be in a mindless, blow-up movie. I’m not into it,” she once told MTV News.
A ‘Wanted’ sequel could still happen according to the film’s director
Over a decade after the film’s been released, Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov still keeps hope alive for a follow-up film. In 2018, Bekmambetov told SYFY Wire about ideas he still had for the sequel to the McAvoy film.
“The Fraternity now, if it exist[ed] today, I’m sure would be in [the] digital space,” he said. “They can get messages, the names from some hackers …they will use blockchain to set up the assassinations. We live in a different world now. In [the years since] 2008, I am sure our world is not about guns or explosive materials anymore. It’s about the information, it’s about the big data, blockchain, dark web, cryptocurrency. It’s where we live now.”
