It’s been a little over 15 years since the release of Sky High — we need a sequel already!
The movie stars Michael Angarano as Will Stronghold, the son of the two most famous superheroes out there, The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston). Will’s just starting his very first year at Sky High, a high school for superheroes, and the pressure is, well, sky high for him to live up to everyone’s exceptions. Trouble is, Will hasn’t manifested his powers yet so he can’t impress his parents or his school crush, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Gwen Grayson.
Given the fact that superhero movies are one of the most popular types of films out there, the basic premise of Sky High, a high school for superheroes and sidekicks, is more than enough to warrant another go-around. On top of that, Sky High’s amassed a cult following over the years that still rallies behind the characters featured in the 2005 original. As much as I’d love to see what life is like for Will and his friends 15, 20 years later, Winstead’s character could make for an especially interesting sequel star.
In a delightfully bonkers Sky High twist, it’s revealed that Gwen Grayson is actually the super villain Royal Pain who wields “The Pacifier,” a weapon that turns victims into babies. At the end of the movie, Will and his friends manage to defeat Royal Pain, but every vanquished villain needs to seek revenge (again and again), right? That’s the idea we rolled with on Collider Ladies Night! Check out the video at the top of this article to find out what Winstead thinks Royal Pain could be up to right now and which characters from her other films should be in the mix.
On top of that, Winstead also took a moment to look back on the Sky High experience and pinpoint one of her biggest takeaways. The movie marked one of Winstead’s very first major films and all of a sudden she’s on set with heavyweights like Russell, Preston, Bruce Campbell and more. So, of all those industry veterans, who made the biggest impression on her as a rising star?
“I wasn’t in the scene, but I came to set to watch Cloris Leachman do her cameo in the film where she played the school nurse. She was so funny and it was all improv her stuff. She just was one banger after another of funny, funny, funny ideas and I had never really thought about improvising before that. That wasn’t even something that was in my wheelhouse, and I remember just being so inspired by her ability to think on the fly and to go with the flow and the confidence to be able to do that was really inspiring to me. So it’s not something that I really started to do for years and years and years, or really had the confidence to do [laughs], but I was like, she’s a hero. I totally fell in love with her watching her do that.”
Looking for more from Winstead? We’ve got you well covered in that department! You can listen to our uncut Ladies Night conversation in podcast form below to hear about her experience working on Death Proof, Birds of Prey, Kate and so much more!