Just a couple of weeks ago it was looking unlikely that Jim Carrey, sought to play Colonel Stars, a member of a Justice League-like band of real-life superheroes in "Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Walls," would actually make an appearance in the high-profile sequel. But hey, it looks like enough strings were pulled, favors promised, and back-end points awarded, because Carrey is indeed set to co-star in the follow-up to the jazzy deconstructionist comic book movie.
The sequel, under the supervision of original director/co-writer Matthew Vaughn, will be released through Universal next summer. (The first film was produced independently and released by Lionsgate domestically.) Should the new film follow the recently completed comic book arc by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, it will concern the aforementioned Justice League-style group, called Justice Forever, which Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) starts in an effort to combat the escalating violence of Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who now goes by the more menacing moniker of Motherfucker. Chloe Moretz is set to return as Hit-Girl, who makes a go at being a regular kid, and Nicolas Cage should be back as Big Daddy, although in what capacity we're not sure, considering he met an unpleasant end in the first film (and comic book). It was recently announced that Lindy Booth would play Forever Justice member Night Bitch, Donald Faison will be Dr. Gravity, Robert Emms is Insect Man, John Leguizamo is Javier, and Morris Chestnut is replacing Omari Hardwick as Marcus Williams, Hit-Girl's guardian and the best friend to Nic Cage's character's alter ego.
While, granted, there is a sizable amount of talent in front of the camera and, honestly, it says something that everyone is returning to the sequel even without direct involvement of Vaughn (who is busy prepping his confusing-sounding "X-Men: First Class" sequel "X-Men: Days of Future Past" for Fox). But we have to express concern about Jeff Wadlow. We understand that Vaughn hand-picked him, but the dude's two movies, 2005's subpar horror movie "Cry Wolf" and 2008's subpar fighting movie "Never Back Down," don't exactly have us jumping out of our seats in excitement. Plus, are they ever actually going to recapture the madcap, anarchic energy of the first film?
Still, Carrey will be a pretty big draw. The last time he had a brush with super-heroics was on the other side of the good/evil divide, as villain The Riddler in Joel Schumacher's marginal "Batman Forever." Carrey is a noted fan of the first "Kick-Ass," appearing on stage with Conan O'Brien in a Kick-Ass costume during Conan's Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour in Los Angeles.
"Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Walls" hits theaters (hard) on June 28th, 2013. [Deadline]