The RoboCop franchise has seen three original films, a reboot film and four television spin-offs. The sci-fi action franchise began with the 1987 film RoboCop. A sequel, RoboCop 2 released in 1990, and the third film, RoboCop 3 released in 1993. The franchise was rebooted in 2014 with the film RoboCop. All four films have had different directors. The recent installment in the franchise, RoboCop (2014), received modest reviews from critics. The film grossed $242 million at the global box office against a budget of $130 million. The film had an ensemble cast, consisting of Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson and Abbie Cornish.
In 2015, it was reported that RoboCop will be seeing a sequel and that Sony was working on the development of the same. Those plans were later shelved, with the franchise now set for another reboot.
RoboCop Returns: What we know so far
The reboot was announced in July 2018. Neill Blomkamp was attached to the franchise as the director of the film. The film will be titled RoboCop Returns and will serve as a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film, skipping all events in the films released in between.
However, in August 2019, Neill Blomkamp left the project to work on a horror movie instead. He made the announcement on Twitter.
After Blomkamp’s departure, Abe Forsythe was brought on as the director of the film.
There have been no official announcements regarding the cast of the film. Rumors about the return of the original RoboCop, Peter Weller, were floating around when Neill Blomkamp was at the helm of the film. Blomkamp himself had advocated for the return of Weller. With Weller in his 70s now, it seems highly unlikely that he will return for the reboot/sequel to RoboCop.
Other cast details are also not finalized as of now. There has been no official release date announced for RoboCop Returns as of now.