It seems that Peter Berg, the director of 2008 Will Smith superhero epic, Hancock is now seriously talking sequel.

Are you drooling at the mere thought of this? Do you spend waking nights with fingers crossed just focused towards the mere possibility that we will revisit the vice-stricken amnesiac and ancient God-turned-superhero? (Just go with me on this one.) Well, as Berg tells Sci-Fi Wire (whose name, unlike its channel’s is still mysteriously spelled properly):

Caution: Spoilers ahead.

“There might be another god out there,” Berg said in an exclusive interview last month in Pasadena, Calif. “Might be another one.”

If you haven’t seen the film (but decided to read on, anyway), Berg is referring to the plot idea in which Hancock (Will Smith) is an ancient immortal being who loses his powers when close to another immortal (in this case, his love interest played by Charlize Theron.) From what we were told, they were the last two of their kind. The tragedy of their love, was that they could never be close, or they would eventually die, ending their race entirely.

The talk after the film’s initial July 2008 release and its ultimately $227.9 million domestic take, seemed to point to a sequel that may have even been on the way to being fast-tracked. Flash-forward to over a year later, and we are still discussing the project in the “loose rumor” context. While Will Smith is currently busy with other projects, (like killing The Karate Kid) it kind of leaves you wondering if there was some kind of behind-the-scenes game-changer that put the film on hold.

Personally, I don’t see many people clamoring for Hancock 2 in droves. Sure, the first film was somewhat of a solid action/comedy film, but it was also heavily conventional and could easily fall victim to being forgotten. If a sequel is going to happen, it probably needed to happen within a two-year window from the first film. (Which, at this point, it will not.) That is not to say that Will Smith’s star power couldn’t carry the film toward some profitability (realistically, it’s probably what got people in theaters for the first one), however, I can’t imagine that the story would be strong enough where your average moviegoer would look at a sequel and go “man, I HAVE to see THAT!” (Unless a sub-plot that Berg confirmed with Jason Bateman’s character starting a charity campaign happens to tickle your fancy.)

But hey, stranger things have happened at the box-office.
Source: G4