Marvel and DC may have been dabbling in the multiverse to exceedingly mixed results recently, but Robert Rodriguez beat them both to the punch by over a decade after confirming that Spy Kids is just one of many alternate realities that are all connected.
It’s quite a confusing timeline to keep track of, seeing as the initial trilogy was followed by legacy sequel All the Time in the World almost a decade later, without mentioning that Netflix’s reboot Armageddon is coming to streaming in a matter of weeks. Then there’s The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, itself followed by the aforementioned streaming service’s We Can Be Heroes, which ended up as one of the platform’s biggest hits of all-time.
Of course, we can’t go without mentioning Machete and its sequel Machete Kills, either, with Danny Trejo’s titular federale appearing in all four of the mainline Spy Kids installments, as well as the fake trailer lodged in the middle of Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse that snowballed into a pair of solo features.
As Rodriguez put it himself in a Reddit AMA; “they’re alternate universes! Juni is a cholo in Machete and Carmen is KILLJOY in Machete Kills. MACHETE is “Uncle” Machete in Spy Kids. And Antonio Banderas is “EL Cameleon” in Machete Kills and “Uncle” Machete’s brother and the spy dad in Spy Kids. Cheech is fake Uncle Felix in Spy Kids and Machete’s BROTHER in Machete. There’s probably another connection I’m forgetting,” meaning the multiverse nobody expected is a real thing.
For what it’s worth, All the Time in the World is the one performing above expectations on streaming this week, with FlixPatrol naming it as one of the biggest hits on Paramount Plus. With a We Can Be Heroes sequel on the cards, too, the world-building isn’t even over by a long shot.