An upcoming 2024 sci-fi movie featuring Jennifer Lopez seems like the perfect follow-up to the beloved star’s surprise Netflix hit from 2023. One of the most influential entertainers worldwide, J.Lo kicked off her multidisciplinary career as a dancer, singer, and actor in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Credited with making the Latin pop movement an international sensation, Jennifer Lopez rose to fame in Hollywood after starring in 1997’s Selena — a landmark biopic about Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez that earned Lopez a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination.
Since hitting it big in Selena, Lopez has gone on to have an impressive career in Hollywood. While the actor-musician’s movies vary from genre to genre, J.Lo predominately carved out a rom-com niche for herself with fan-favorite films like The Wedding Planner and Monster-in-Law. From Out of Sight with George Clooney to Bordertown with Martin Sheen, Lopez has also starred in crime comedies and dramas, making her Oscar-nominated actor comeback in 2019’s Hustlers a natural fit. Lopez’s latest genre move, however, is setting up a somewhat-surprising new chapter in her acting career.
Atlas Continues Jennifer Lopez’s Surprising Action Star Career After The Mother
Although Jennifer Lopez has appeared in adventure-horror films like Anaconda, psychological sci-fi flicks like The Cell, and even sleek action-thrillers like Parker, she isn’t typically thought of as an action-movie star. J.Lo’s genre-spanning filmography proves she’s got comedic and dramatic chops in spades, but it’s 2023’s The Mother that solidified her promise as a lead in action films. Known by her code name “the Mother,” Lopez stars as a former U.S. Army operative who teams up with an FBI agent to save her kidnapped teenage daughter (Lucy Paez).
Despite being rather derivative, the trope-laden The Mother broke a 2023 streaming record during its debut weekend and beyond. Plus, seeing Lopez go full hero-mode was a surprisingly fun and refreshing twist on her decades-long Hollywood track record. The star’s upcoming Netflix feature is a sci-fi thriller called Atlas, which sees Lopez sharing the screen with stunt performer-turned-Marvel-hero Simu Liu. Needless to say, Atlas follows in The Mother‘s footsteps by carving out a new action-star chapter in Lopez’s career.
How Atlas Is Different To Jennifer Lopez’s The Mother
Even though the science-fiction flick is set to hit Netflix in 2024, not much has been revealed about Atlas‘ premise. Of course, the key difference between Atlas and The Mother is that sci-fi bent. Although Jennifer Lopez has a few sci-fi outings to her name, including The Cell, it’s somewhat-new sub-genre territory for the actor. Set in a high-tech future, Atlas sees Lopez’s titular government analyst stranded on a far-off planet where she must apprehend a renegade robot. Saving the robot — and humanity — might come at a personal price: Lopez’s character might have to trust A.I.
Netflix’s Biggest Movie Of 2023 Isn’t What You’d Expect (& It’s Huge For An Upcoming Release)
Netflix has revealed its biggest movie of 2023, and not only is the title a surprise, but it’s good news for one of the streamer’s 2024 releases.
Delving into the nature of artificial intelligence is nothing new for sci-fi movies. Given current events, there has been an uptick in films and TV shows looking to tackle the tech-born peril, from A Murder at the End of the World to The Creator. Atlas follows its peers’ line of thinking, though it also comes from filmmakers who worked on blockbuster action projects like San Andreas and Rampage. In trading the Alaskan wilderness for outer-space, Atlas differentiates itself from The Mother while still proving that Lopez is an actor who broke her typecast.
Jennifer Lopez’s Atlas Role Makes The Mother 2 More Likely
Although The Mother 2 hasn’t been officially announced by Netflix, it seems likely that Jennifer Lopez’s winning relationship with the streamer will continue. Taken on its own, The Mother has become a top performer for Netflix. Despite being critically panned, The Mother climbed its way into Netflix’s top 10 most-watched movies of all time (via Business Insider). While it probably won’t take much more convincing for a sequel to Lopez’s 2023 action-thriller movie to be green-lit, Atlas‘ success could make future Jennifer Lopez action flicks more likely, from The Mother 2 to new could-be franchises.
