Project Power 2: Is Netflix Making A Sequel With Jamie Foxx?
There are no specific plans for a Project Power 2, but the Jamie Foxx Netflix original certainly left the door open for another movie.
Score another win for Netflix. The streaming service found itself another original hit when Project Power hit the streamer back in August 2020. It didn’t take long for fans to jump on social media demanding that Jamie Foxx and Netflix get working on a sequel. Here’s what we know so far about Project Power 2.
THE ORIGINAL STORYLINE LENDS ITSELF WELL TO A PROJECT POWER 2
Netflix, always on the lookout for its next big franchise, may have found it in Project Power. The stories that can be told in Project Power 2 would likely continue to be based on a pill that gives five-minute superpowers to anyone who takes it.
Screenwriter Mattson Tomlin (Solomon Gundy and the upcoming The Batman) has hinted that there are more tricks up his sleeve, should Netflix ask for Project Power 2.
Tomlin says of Project Power 2, “The animal kingdom is so nuts. And there’s a bunch of stuff that we came up with that didn’t end up in the movie that you know, will see the light of day if we are so lucky to do a sequel. We ended up where we ended up in, in large part because we wanted to be able to go somewhere in the event that we’re lucky enough to do sequel.”
But Tomlin and the original movie’s directing team of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Nerve, Viral) also went into the first Project Power not necessarily focused on a potential sequel but more on getting their movie right – especially the ending.
Tomlin told Insider, “There was never a point where we thought we are going to box ourselves in to be obligated to do something in the future. I definitely wrote a lot of different endings. The objective was to tell the story and end it on the right note.”
The right note, in this case, was allowing all three major characters to ride off into their own sunset, leaving the door wide open for Project Power 2.
Tomlin also spoke about the idea of “power,” noting that they have a very long list of powers they were not able to use in the movie but could use in Project Power 2.
“There’s a number of things in my back pocket that I’m really excited to explore and play with,” he admitted to Insider. Of power, he said, “For me, Power is an urban legend and people aren’t quite sure. And that means there’s a very exciting opportunity. How does the world change once everybody knows that this exists? It will change the fabric of how all of life is potentially lived. And I think that that’s a really cool place to go.”
THERE WAS IMMEDIATE PROJECT POWER 2 DEMAND AFTER THE ORIGINAL RELEASED
Fans are ready for Project Power 2. Here were just a few of the reactions from viewers who want more…
BLACK LIVES MATTER COULD BE A BACKDROP FOR PROJECT POWER 2
The Power drug comes from the abilities of animals. But that doesn’t mean things have to stay within that world for Project Power 2. “Just because the first movie was from the animal kingdom world doesn’t mean we can’t progress out of that and start to get trippier,” Tomlin said. “I think there’s a lot to explore there.”
And then Tomlin went on to say what he would really like to explore in a possible Project Power 2. “What interests me as a screenwriter is how to make a big sci-fi story about something real and have it resonate with something that’s actually going on.”
Tomlin is speaking of the social unrest, more specifically Black Lives Matter. “To make a movie is so hard that you really want it to say something,” Tomlin said. “So, to me, this movie is so much about having a real political resonance and being about what’s going on in this country and about the power structures that are failing people. So yeah, things like Black Lives Matter are ripe for exploration if we’re lucky to do a sequel.”
THE ORIGINAL
Before venturing into a Project Power 2, it’s important to know how the original unfolded. Project Power starred Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, and Rodrigo Santoro and told a unique superhero story. A mysterious pill has been developed that unlocks a superpower within the user. This superpower is specific to its user but there is a catch. The superpower lasts five minutes and the user has no idea what the superpower will be. It can be virtually anything from invisibility, bulletproof skin, super speed, or super strength while other users develop a much deadlier reaction.
In our review of Project Power we were less than enthusiastic. At the time we said: “Project Power is a light watch, easy to tune in and out of and easy to forget as soon as it’s over.”
It’s the classic good versus evil, not knowing which side Foxx falls on. Gordon-Levitt is the cop on the case, taking the pill in hopes of somehow evening the odds. He tries to track down the drug dealer responsible for getting this mysterious pill onto the streets as well as the maker of the pill.
Teaming up with him is a teenage dealer (Fishback) who decides to put aside a want for money for a want for justice. That trio of Foxx, Gordon-Levitt, and Fishback survives the movie and should be there for Project Power 2.
As of this writing, there were no specific greenlit plans for a Project Power 2, but considering the viewing numbers of the original combined with at least above-average critical ratings, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another come down the pike.
