Vin Diesel took to Facebook today to hint at a possible forthcoming announcement from Warner Bros. about a sequel to The Iron Giant, one of the greatest animated films ever made.  The beloved animated classic was the feature-length debut of director Brad Bird, who has since helmed the brilliant Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the underrated Tomorrowland, and a little film called The Incredibles, which is now also going to produce its own sequel. Under a trailer for the film, Diesel writes, "I have been very lucky to have played so many interesting characters... one of the first and one of my favorites is... the Iron Giant." He goes onto say, "P.s. Don't be surprised when you hear WB announce the sequel."

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Image via Warner Bros.

Now, let's talk a little about wording here. "Don't be surprised" could be construed as more speculative than "you should expect," so it's not easy to take Diesel's announcement as a sign of real, hard information. However, it's clear that Diesel is contending for the return of the stories-tall super-robot, and if he isn't talking from knowledge of an actual plan from Warner Bros. to announce a sequel, he's clearly trying to get their attention to spur a conversation about a second film. It's a ripe idea, to be sure, but Bird is not the type to automatically okay a sequel to a film simply because it's a viable opportunity. If he was that sort of filmmaker, we'd be anticipating the release of The Incredibles 4 rather than just hearing the first rumblings of The Incredibles 2. That being said, no one would be more excited to hear about the first details of a sequel to The Iron Giant, which will be re-released in a restoration in late September, than this writer. Nor, for that matter, would there be many people more skeptical and suspicious of the intentions of a Iron Giant sequel than this writer.


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