Lucy 2: The sequel to Luc Besson’s hit with abandoned Scarlett Johansson?

Lucy will return Sunday evening on TF1. Where is its sequel? We take stock.

During the summer of 2014, Lucy brought more than 5 million spectators to France, before collecting more than 450 million dollars worldwide. A big success to which Luc Besson initially did not think of following up (“the film was not made for that”he replied when he left).

Lucy 2 was however quickly announced : in June 2015, less than a year after the release of this sci-fi film where Scarlett Johansson saw its abilities being overdeveloped after ingesting a drug, EuropaCorp officially mentioned starting construction on No. 2. Besson was writing it, but did not intend to direct it, absorbed in the preparation of Valerian and the city of a thousand planets. What about today ?

Lucy or the dehumanized recycling of Luc Besson’s cinema and 2001, A Space Odyssey

The ambitious space opera of Luc Besson was released in the summer of 2017 in cinemas, but it did not achieve the expected success despite his qualities, reaching 225 million dollars for 177 of the official budget. A hard blow for the director and his production company, which has been going badly since: accumulating debts, the company had to lay off numerous employees, his film school was threatened with closure, its distribution branch was largely taken over by Pathé…

The latest news from Lucy date back to October 2017, Variety having announced the completion of the scenario, but at the time, Besson was angry with rumors spread on this subject on Instagram (in a since-deleted message, which stated, among other things: “No, I’m not preparing Lucy 2. Neither yesterday nor tomorrow“).

He then embarked on directing another action film following a strong new heroine, Anna (played by Sasha Luss), presented in the vein of Nikita. This project, also led by Helen Mirren and Cillian Murphy, has been completed since March 2018, has been postponed several times, the director having been accused of sexual assault since May of the same year. If the first complaint, for rape, was dismissedLuc Besson was then at the heart ofa second investigationand its first plaintiff, Sand Van Roy, seized the court of human rights.

This year, Luc Besson released DogMana drama starring Caleb Landry Jones, but Lucy 2 seems to be at a standstill. Not to mention that since her announcement, Scarlett Johansson has never expressed her desire to return for a sequel… Could this be done on television, in the form of series with Morgan Freeman and no longer on the heroine of the first film? It was discussed last year, even if the project did not materialize there either.

Trailer for Lucyrebroadcast Sunday evening on TF1:

Does the world of cinema still want to work with Luc Besson? “It’s not my problem,” he said