The Perfect Female John Wick Replacement Arrived 7 Years Ago & Was Wrongly Forgotten Despite $100M Success

John Wick is preparing for its female spinoff, Ballerina, but the female response to Wick had already arrived seven years ago, but it was quickly forgotten. One of the most recent successes in the action genre is the John Wick saga. Created by Derek Kolstad, the saga began in 2014 with the movie simply titled John Wick, directed by Chad Stahelski and starring Keanu Reeves. In it, Wick, a legendary hitman, comes out of retirement to seek revenge against those who killed his dog, a final gift from his recently deceased wife.

In the process, Wick confronts the Russian mafia, marking the beginning of his return as a hitman. John Wick was a critical and commercial success, marking the beginning of a franchise with three sequels and a fifth movie in development, along with TV shows and a spinoff movie. The latter, titled John Wick Presents: Ballerina, will focus on ballerina-assassin Rooney (Ana de Armas) as she hunts those who killed her family. However, John Wick already got the perfect female response to it over a decade ago, but it was quickly forgotten.

Atomic Blonde Was The Perfect Female Response To John Wick

Atomic Blonde Could Easily Be Part Of The John Wick Universe

Three years after the release of John Wick (and the same year John Wick: Chapter 2 was released), Atomic Blonde arrived. Directed by David Leitch and based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, Atomic Blonde took the audience back to 1989 to meet Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron), a top-level MI6 field agent. Lorraine is sent on a mission to Berlin just before the collapse of the wall to get a stolen list with the names of exceptional secret agents, but there are many twists and turns in this story.

Given their similar themes and styles, particularly in their action scenes, Atomic Blonde was compared to John Wick, and it served as the perfect female response to Reeves’ character. However, despite being a critical and commercial success, the world of Atomic Blonde wasn’t expanded beyond Leitch’s film. In 2017, Leitch was asked about the possibility of an Atomic Blonde and John Wick crossover, which he said sounded like a great idea, but while John Wick continued to expand, Atomic Blonce was left in the past.

What Happened To Atomic Blonde 2 (Will It Still Happen?)

Atomic Blonde 2 Is Trapped In Development Hell

The success of Atomic Blonde led to talks about a sequel, with Theron revealing in 2018 that Atomic Blonde 2 was in development. Leitch confirmed this in 2019 (via /Film), and in 2020, the Atomic Blonde sequel was announced to be in development over at Netflix with Theron as producer, as well. Unfortunately, Atomic Blonde 2 hasn’t moved forward since then, and there haven’t been any substantial updates since then. Speaking to CinemaBlend in April 2024, Atomic Blonde screenwriter Kurt Johnstad revealed he had planned it as a trilogy, but he hasn’t been brought in for the sequel.

Netflix moved forward with another Theron-led sequel, The Old Guard 2, before Atomic Blonde 2, but The Old Guard 2 happening could be good news for the Atomic Blonde sequel. However, there are still no updates about the development of Atomic Blonde 2 and whether it’s still in the works or not, but it definitely deserved a fate similar to that of John Wick.

Source: /Film, CinemaBlend.