Spy Kids: Armageddon Director Reveals Why the Franchise Returned After So Long

This weekend marked the return of the Spy Kids franchise, which hasn't had a new film released in 12 years. Writer and director Robert Rodriguez delivered what is basically a reboot for Netflix, titled Spy Kids: Armageddon. There are new stars involved, telling a brand new story, but keeping the same overall tone and style. Without the involvement of the original stars, and moving to Netflix for this latest installment, some fans may be wondering why Rodriguez opted to bring Spy Kids back into the spotlight now.

According to the filmmaker, it's all about continuing an original franchise. Hollywood is all about making franchise movies and getting involved with different IP that people love. Spy Kids is definitely a recognizable IP, but it's one that isn't owned by a big company or studio. It belongs to Rodriguez, and he wants to take advantage of that when he has an opportunity.

"It's hard to make movies in Hollywood that aren't [based on] a preexisting material that a studio owns," Rodriguez told Yahoo Entertainment. "So when you can come up with your own story and make sequels to it, man, you're going to make as many of those as you can because it's a rarity."

In the same interview, Rodriguez addressed the casting for this new Spy Kids movie. Armageddon focuses on a new set of characters. The main kids in this new movie are played by Connor Esterson and Everly Carganilla, with the duo of Zachary Levi and Gina Rodriguez playing their parents. Armageddon marks the first Spy Kids movie without former stars Alex PenaVega and Daryl Sabara. Rodriquez said that he wanted to establish a story with another family at its center, especially since it had been more than a decade since the last film in the franchise.

"I wanted to re-establish a new family," the filmmaker explained. "Because it'd been so long [since 2011's Spy Kids: All the Time in the World], it was important to just start the franchise fresh and then go from there."

Rodriguez still wants to find a way to bring the two sets of characters together at some point down the road, if there are more Spy Kids movies in the future. "I would love to bring back [characters], I would love to connect the worlds," he said. "It could still be in the same world, so if we get to make more films, there easily could be legacy characters that come back."

Have you checked out the new Spy Kids movie on Netflix? What do you think about the franchise's long-awaited return? Let us know in the comments!