Atomic Blonde 2 is caught up in rights issues

Made on a budget of $30 million, the action thriller Atomic Blonde earned $100 million at the box office and was meant to launch a franchise, with screenwriter Kurt Johnstad saying he envisioned the story as a trilogy. But, seven years after Focus Features (a division of Universal Pictures) released the film, a sequel has still not made it into production – and during an interview with The Direct, director David Leitch revealed what the hold-up is: Atomic Blonde 2 has gotten caught up in rights issues.

Atomic Blonde was a passion project for star Charlize Theron, who produced the film through her company Denver and Delilah Productions. Denver and Delilah started developing Atomic Blonde 2 in 2018, and in 2020 Theron revealed that the sequel was set up at the Netflix streaming service. That was the last we heard of it… until this new update from Leitch.

Leitch told The Direct, “Everyone’s still trying to unravel rights issues, and it had traveled from Universal to Netflix for a bit, and then now it’s become a little bit of a bottleneck of too many forces working against each other to try and get it made, because it’s such a great piece of IP and would be amazing to go back and revisit that world and that character. So, hopefully we can get it done…“

Based on the graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, Atomic Blonde had the following synopsis: Sensual and savage, Lorraine Broughton is the most elite spy in MI6, an agent who’s willing to use all of her lethal skills to stay alive during an impossible mission. With the Berlin Wall about to fall, she travels into the heart of the city to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthless espionage ring. Once there, she teams up with an embedded station chief to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.

Theron played Lorraine Broughton and was joined in the cast by James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Roland Møller, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, James Faulkner, Barbara Sukowa, Toby Jones, Sam Hargrave, Bill Skarsgård, and Daniel Bernhardt.

Are you a fan of Atomic Blonde, and are you hoping the rights issues will be resolved so Atomic Blonde 2 can go into production? Let us know by leaving a comment below.