Atomic Blonde writer hoping for a trilogy

It’s been seven years since the release of Atomic Blonde, the action thriller starring Charlize Theron as top-level MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton. As the film was a box-office and critical success, it begs the question: where the hell is the sequel? Atomic Blonde screenwriter Kurt Johnstad isn’t sure what’s going on with a followup, but he recently told CinemaBlend that he always envisioned Lorraine’s story as a trilogy.

“To me, I always said that’s a trilogy,” Johnstad said. “You could tell three of those, and I hope they crack it. If they need some help, they know where to find me.“

Charlize Theron confirmed that a sequel was in the works in 2018, with her production company, Denver & Delilah Productions, heading up the project. Johnstad hasn’t heard anything from them, saying that it’s possible “they may have gone to another writer, they may have a draft.“

No matter whether Johnstad is involved in further installments of the potential Atomic Blonde trilogy, the first movie still holds a special place in his heart. “It was a fantastic script at a time in my career, and I was really able to bring it to my friends Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch,” Johnstad said. “It brought me nothing but joy to then when Dave was like, ‘Ok, I’m gonna make this movie, Chad went to do John Wick 2.’ To watch Dave just embrace this script that was written… it had all the elements that Dave wanted, but then we really leaned into Dave’s sensibilities as a director and just made it fun and cool and put in all the needle drops with the music. And just the design of the movie, he made it his own. It’s a special movie.“

Atomic Blonde 2 is reportedly set up at Netflix, but it seems to be taking a long time to get off the ground. “We took [ATOMIC BLONDE 2] to them [Netflix] and Scott Stuber [Head of Original Films at Netflix] was really interested in it,” Theron said four years ago. “We talked to him about it extensively, and we’re in the process of writing it right now. That character was set up in a way where she didn’t really reveal much of herself. So I feel like there’s a lot of potential there. The bar’s pretty high, but we’re excited about it.“

Would you be down for an Atomic Blonde trilogy?