Spy Kids: Armageddon: Robert Rodriguez Reveals Why Original Stars Didn’t Return

Spy Kids: Armageddon was released on Netflix today, and it sees director Robert Rodriguez returning to the franchise he first started back in 2001. While Rodriguez is back in the director’s chair, the film features a whole new cast. Shazam! star Zachary Levi and Jane the Virgin‘s Gina Rodriguez are the movie’s lead parents while Everly Carganilla (The Afterparty) and newcomer Connor Esterson play the titular spy kids. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rodriguez explained why the original stars didn’t return for the reboot.

“I wanted to re-establish a new family,” Rodriguez explained. “Because it’d been so long [since 2011’s All the Time in the World], it was important to just start the franchise fresh and then go from there.” He added, “I would love to bring back [characters], I would love to connect the worlds. That would be so fun … 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.”

“It’s hard to make movies in Hollywood that aren’t [based on] a preexisting material that a studio owns,” Rodriguez explained. “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.”

What Is Spy Kids: Armageddon About?

The new Spy Kids is also set to feature Shazam!‘s DJ Cotrona and No Time To Die‘s Billy Magnussen. You can read the description of the reboot here: “This latest Spy Kids chapter is set after the children of the world’s greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, leading them to become spies themselves to save their parents and the world.”  

“My most rabid fanbase all these years, by far, has been my kid films. My Spy Kids audience,” Rodriguez previously shared at Cinema-Con. “These kids watch those movies over and over because they’re action films made for children and families, in particular at a time when they need empowerment. Netflix came to me [for We Can Be Heroes] because the Spy Kids movies had done just so well on their service. They said ‘Could you make a series of films that do that?’ And I said, ‘I’d love to!’”

Spy Kids: Armageddon is now streaming on Netflix.