Margot Robbie’s upcoming Ocean’s movie will be what the 2001 Ocean’s Eleven spin-off Ocean’s 8 should have been in one important way. The 2001 Ocean’s Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, recreated the 1960 Rat Pack Ocean’s Eleven film for the modern era and kickstarted a franchise with Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen. Later, 2018’s Ocean’s 8 was made as a female-centric continuation of the series. Aside from the mediocre Ocean’s Twelve, the Ocean’s movies were received by critics and audiences generally favorably.
The first Ocean’s movie follows Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew as they successfully steal $160 million from three Las Vegas casinos in a night, down from the five casinos targeted in the original 1960 movie. Twelve and Thirteen more or less follow the same pattern as Eleven with different heist motives. While Netflix’s Heist reveals Ocean’s main problem to be the unnecessarily convoluted nature of the heists, Danny Ocean’s elaborate schemes are exactly what make the heists so engaging and almost comical to watch. Ocean’s 8 brings the series into a slightly new direction by taking franchise staple Clooney out entirely, focusing instead on his sister Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) and her crew as they plan to steal a heavily guarded Cartier necklace worth millions during the Met Gala.
Margot Robbie’s Ocean’s film is expected to be set in Europe during the 1960s. Considering that this time period would be paying homage to the original film with the added benefit of focusing on entirely new characters, Robbie’s Ocean’s has the chance to reinvent the franchise in a completely new way. While this isn’t to say that Ocean’s 8 didn’t add a freshness to the series, Ocean’s 8 continued after Danny’s probable death, and in doing so, it still connected itself to the previous films despite having a different cast of characters. Ocean’s 8 understandably made this connection. However, if the Ocean’s franchise wished to focus on a new cast of characters, Robbie’s Ocean’s premise has a better chance of completely reinvigorating the series for the potential of new material.
The Ocean’s 8 ensemble cast has great chemistry, with Sandra Bullock leading an engaging team consisting of the likes of Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, and Awkwafina. At a time when franchises made female reboots simply for the gimmick of it, Ocean’s 8′s all-female cast is actually purposeful and therefore avoids feeling gimmicky. If an Ocean’s movie were to move past Danny Ocean, Ocean’s 8 certainly goes in an appropriate direction. With that said, creating a 1960s European reboot could expand the Ocean’s universe in a way that Ocean’s 8 couldn’t. If done well, it would prove that Ocean’s could move past Danny’s story and therefore create more directions for the series’ future.
Because Danny Ocean’s shadow looms throughout the movie, Ocean’s 8 couldn’t fully move into the future. By virtue of being Danny Ocean’s sister, Bullock’s Debbie Ocean feels like a Clooney replacement, engaging as she is as a heist leader. Meanwhile, Margot Robbie’s Ocean’s movie has the chance to make audiences think more about the new things that the franchise could bring. Because of Bernie Mac’s 2008 death, George Clooney has stated a reluctance for starring in a potential Ocean’s 14. Likewise, Bullock’s aversion to sequels after having negative experiences with Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous and Speed 2: Cruise Control makes her return to the Ocean’s franchise equally improbable. If the Ocean’s Eleven series is to continue after Ocean’s 8, turning to its 1960s roots with Margot Robbie is a wise move.
