Sucker Punch star Jena Malone expresses her interest in making a prequel to Zack Snyder's 2011 psychological fantasy action film. The film follows Babydoll, a young woman who is involuntarily committed to a mental asylum after having been framed for the murder of her sister by her abusive stepfather. With the help of four other prisoners at the institution, the group travel through fantasy worlds to acquire the items needed to help her escape before her scheduled lobotomy.
The cast for Sucker Punch was led by Emily Browning as Babydoll alongside Abbie Cornish, Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn and Jon Hamm. The film was a major disappointment for Warner Bros. upon release, scoring mostly negative reviews from critics and only grossing $89 million against its $82 million budget. Sucker Punch would sit as Snyder's sole original property prior to launching WB's DC Extended Universe and subsequently parting ways with the studio and heading to Netflix to build his latest original property, the Army of the Dead franchise.
To celebrate 12 years since production was underway for the film, Malone took to Instagram to share a photo with her Sucker Punch co-stars, recreating a moment the group had together in the past, though without Gugino present for the current shot. In the caption paired with the photo, Malone expressed her love for her co-stars and also added a hashtag showing her interest in returning to the world of the film. Check out Malone's post below:
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It could simply be construed that Malone is so eager to work with her Sucker Punch co-stars on a new project that a prequel was the first thing that came to her mind. However, despite the generally negative reception from critics for the film, many of the stars have remained proud of the project. Chung recently opened up about the footage that was ultimately cut from the film to fit a PG-13 rating, recalling the production to be "so fun" and the action sequences to be a lot longer than what was seen in either the theatrical or Blu-ray extended cuts of the film.
Given the somewhat bleak nature of the story and ending of Sucker Punch, a prequel would certainly be the more appropriate route to expand the material versus a proper follow-up. It would allow more time for each character's backstory to come to light and be developed rather than primarily focusing on Browning's Babydoll as was the plot in the original. However, with Snyder now busy with multiple projects at Netflix and WB having burnt most of their bridges with the filmmaker during both Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League, the chances of he and the latter studio reuniting for a new Sucker Punch project seem low.
Source: Jena Malone/Instagram