The Big Picture
- Spy Kids: Armageddon continues the beloved franchise with new characters and a focus on the digital world’s impact on reality.
- Filming the sequel is challenging due to the young actors’ schooling schedules, but their age ensures continuity for future installments.
- Billy Magnussen joins the cast as a formidable villain who can take over all technological devices, presenting a major threat to the young spies.
Spy Kids: Armageddon is set to continue the legacy of the franchise that has entertained families for more than two decades, introducing new characters in the world where kids can work on dangerous missions that should be resolved by their parents. Robert Rodriguez, the filmmaker behind the franchise, had plenty to share regarding the potential future of the series. During a recent interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Rodriguez was asked about the possibility of him working on yet another Spy Kids sequel. Here’s what the director had to say:
I always want to make one pretty quickly, but you really can’t film them until the summertime because the kids have to do schooling no matter what, but they have more school that age during the nonsummer break. You would only get them for an hour or two on set. You get them for about four or five hours on summer break, so it’s a little easier to film them. That would be great. The first Spy Kids series we had a movie in the theater every year for three years straight for Spy Kids 1, 2, and 3. They were consecutive.
Rodriguez went on to explain why the new iteration of the Spy Kids is different from the previous one: “We were just finishing one and starting the next, so that would be really great. But fortunately, with these kids, we got them so young, they’re younger than the original Spy Kids. They’re only eight years old, so we’ve got them for several years.” Even if it takes a while to get a new installment approved by the streaming platform, it’s evident that the cast’s young age will help the production team establish continuity between this project and any potential sequel that comes after it.
It’s been a while since a family of spies tried to prevent the world from falling into a catastrophic disaster, and the new film will also focus on the effects the digital world can have on reality. Patty Tango (Everly Carganilla) and Tony Torrez (Connor Esterson) will be the new protagonists of the franchise. They will have to stop a game developer from using a computer virus to take control of all the technology available on the planet. At the same time, the kids will have to save their parents, played by Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi. The fate of the planet will be at stake in the upcoming sequel.
A Formidable Villain in Spy Kids: Armageddon
A person capable of taking over every single technological device on the planet is far more dangerous than the new spies can even imagine. The team behind Rodriguez’s new film cast Billy Magnussen as Rey Kingston, the antagonist of Armageddon. The actor is no stranger to playing an evil, powerful presence, with him portraying Byron Gogol in the television series Made For Love. Magnussen knows how to balance charisma and the sinister undertone of his characters to deliver the best performance that he can, meaning that the Spy Kids will need to do their best to stop Kingston.
Spy Kids: Armageddon premieres on Netflix on September 22. Watch our interview with Rodriguez below:
