Zachary Levi Cast In Reboot Of Robert Rodriguez’s Best Film

Zachary Levi was just cast in a Robert Rodriguez film that is a reboot of his most successful franchise. This could be worth the watch

By Doug Norrie | Published

zachary levi

It looks like Robert Rodriguez is returning to his most successful franchise and he’s going to have some big names to help him along the way. Deadline is reporting that Zachary Levi and others have joined on for a Spy Kids reboot that will see this family-friendly franchise kicked off for a whole new group of viewers. There are already some plot details about what to expect with this latest film (though we don’t have to guess too hard on the broader story points) and it could be another action-packed romp through the world of spycraft through the eyes of some kids. Considering the returns on the first set of movies in this franchise, we have something of a baseline expectation of what could happen this time around for Zachary Levi and company.

This newest Spy Kids movie will be a reboot for the franchise and will bring on a new family of covert folks looking to stop an evil mastermind at work trying to take over the world. The beats are pretty familiar if you followed anything with the first run of movies. There are a set of parent spies (Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez) who accidentally help an evil game developer release a computer virus throughout the world enabling him to control all technology. That sets their kids (Everly Carganilla and Connor Esterson) on a mission to put things right. The Spy Kids reboot is set to stream on Netflix.

Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez will take over the parental roles in Spy Kids that were held by Antonio Banderas Carla Gugino for most of the first run of original films in this franchise. Their children were played by Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara. Other notables who were recurring characters in the first run of movies included Alan Cumming, Cheech Marin, Mike Judge, and Tony Shalhoub. Netflix will look to reset things here around Zachary Levi and company for a new set of viewers and there’s got to be at least some hope that this because something of a tentpole family franchise for the streamer.

With Zachary Levi and others on board, there’s some hope that Robert Rodriguez will be able to recreate some of the success he had with the original Spy Kids movie. That one ended up earning over $147 million on its $35 million budget when it first hit theaters back in 2001. Critics were kind as well with the Rotten Tomatoes score sitting at 93%. But subsequent attempts to recapture what worked in the first fell a bit flat. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, all saw diminishing box office returns and critical scores. A reboot and refresh was definitely in order here.

As for Zachary Levi, he’ll be reprising his superhero role in the DC Extended Universe when Shazam! Fury of the Gods hits screens on December 21st of this year. The first movie was a box office and critical hit, helping to reset some of the tone around DC films coming out of the Zack Snyder Superman run.