Chloe Grace Moretz became a superstar when she stole the show away from actors like Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong as the ass-kicking, butterfly knife-twisting Hit-Girl in 2010’s KICK-ASS. Director Matthew Vaughn and comic creator Mark Millar are interested in doing another movie featuring the young character, but Moretz recently revealed she’s not interested in reprising Hit-Girl for another round.
Moretz was being interviewed at the Provincetown Film Festival (via IndieWire) when she was asked about the recent news about more KICK-ASS films, which could include the return of Hit-Girl. The now 21-year-old Moretz reflected on her time as the character, saying the 2010 film has a special place in her heart, but that her experience with the sequel was disappointing, to say the least.
“I love the franchise, I think the first movie was really, really special. I wish the second one had been handled in a little bit of a different way. Because I think we were all kind of looking forward to something a little different than what happened with it all.”
The 2013 sequel left much to be desired, making half of what the first did at the box office and getting panned by critics and audiences. But no matter how bad a taste the second film left in our mouths we still have the glorious first entry, and Moretz believes we should just remember the good, bloody times.
“As much as I love the character of Hit-Girl, I think she lives and survives in KICK-ASS, and I kind of want to keep her there. I kinda wanna keep everyone’s mind in KICK-ASS. So I don’t think there will be a KICK-ASS 3, at least I don’t think with Hit-Girl in it.”
Vaughn spoke with Empire about rebooting the series earlier this month, but he failed to specify if they would recast Hit-Girl, or whether the story would focus on a younger or older version of her. Vaughn did apparently hint, though, that a new KICK-ASS movie could focus on the new version of the title character, Patience Lee (an African-American woman), instead of bringing back original star Aaron Taylor-Johnson for a third outing.
Like many fans of the movie, I've been holding out hope for a new outing with Moretz as the purple-clad ninja with a pottymouth, but I don't blame her for not wanting to return. She nailed it the first time around, and she's right for thinking we should remember how special that unique superhero movie was. Who knows what will happen with the character for future movies, but it's hard to forget the first time we heard an 11-year-old girl call dudes the c-word before slicing them in two. Ah, good times, indeed.