The Rocketeer can be seen as Joe Johnston’s precursor to his introductory entry into the MCU with Captain America: The First Avenger. Both are World War II superheroes and sport a pretty seamless merging of modern blockbuster filmmaking with the classic tone associated with its story. The Rocketeer never quite reached Batman levels of popularity, but the Disney film has been looked back at with fond eyes over the years and amassed a cult following. Years ago, it was reported that Lawmen: Bass Reeves star David Oyelowo was set to star and produce a sequel to The Rocketeer involving a retired Tuskegee airman, which was to be titled The Return of the Rocketeer.
There hasn’t been much in the way of news since the initial announcement, but David Oyelowo gives an update on the project, by way of The Wrap. Oyelowo explained, “We have forward momentum. I know you guys hear this stuff all the time, but we are in the script development stage and if you’re going to reinvigorate that beloved franchise, you better come with the goods. And so Eugene Ashe is currently writing away and we were talking about it only this week. We’re all very committed to that. But it’s going to have to be great and we will not rest until it is.”
While there hasn’t been much of a mention of the original film’s star, Billy Campbell, getting involved, Oyelowo did talk about how the jet pack would end up with his character. Oyelowo stated, “I had the idea of what happens if the jetpack is passed on to an ex-Tuskegee Airman, someone who you’re not having to do a bunch of heavy lifting as to why does he have the skill and the bravery to be able to don the pack and go off and be heroic?”
Oyelowo currently appears in the Paramount+ series Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and the actor related how the original 1991 film impacted him much like Westerns have, “Well, I loved the original film. I remember seeing it, and again, not unlike the cowboy genre, there was something about it, the aspirational, inspirational, heroic quality of it. I also liked that it was sort of a bit more DIY and do-it-yourself in terms of the pack. It wasn’t superpowers. It was a guy. It just felt more grounded somehow.”