Evidently undeterred after Machete Kills got utterly slaughtered at the box office in the fall of 2013, taking in a measly $15 million at the box office and never recouping its slight $20 million budget, actor Danny Trejo confirmed recently that he and director Robert Rodriguez are still proceeding with their previously planned third installment, titled Machete Kills Again… In Space.
Speaking with Halloween Daily News at the Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, North Carolina, last weekend, Trejo seemed gung-ho about the prospect of again playing the Mexican ex-federale in a third film, reporting that plans have been set in motion to make the exploitation flick later this year:
“Robert [Rodriguez] and I are going to start to do ‘Machete Kills in Space,’ so that’s going to be awesome. Absolutely. We’re going to be working on it this year.”
Machete is one of the more unlikely big screen protagonists in recent cinematic history. He was born out of a fake trailer attached to Rodriguez’s 2007 genre pic Grindhouse (co-created with Quentin Tarantino) and later appeared in a stand-alone film (titled Machete) that made $44 million against a $10.5 million budget. That was obviously a much better financial result than the expanded follow-up, Machete Kills, and the sole reason that anyone is still even talking about the possibility of Machete Kills Again… In Space.
The self-parodying franchise did find an audience, at least initially, which suggests that the innate idea of a follow-up isn’t a terrible one. The amount of stars, including Furious 7‘s Michelle Rodriguez and Spy Kids‘ Alexa PenaVega, who are involved might also be a factor in going ahead with a third movie. Rodriguez and Trejo still believe, it seems, that people want more Machete, and as long as they learn from the lessons of the low-grossing sequel (including that it was poorly advertised and opened against heavy hitters like Gravity and Captain Phillips), there’s no reason not to bring it to them.
Do you agree? Sound off on whether you want to see Machete Kills Again.. In Space below.