The biggest brand in comic-book movies right now is clearly Marvel. And the second-biggest is probably DC. But the third-biggest might be Mark Millar, a writer who’s spent time at both Marvel and DC, wrote the ‘Civil War’ storyline that’s going to be the basis for the next ‘Captain America’ movie, and co-created ‘The Ultimates’ comic that served as a heavy inspiration for many elements of Marvel’s movies (including the Chitauri aliens from ‘The Avengers’ and the depiction of Nick Fury as a Samuel L. Jackson look-alike). Most of Millar’s creator-owned comics have been or are in the process of being turned into films. First there was ‘Wanted’ in 2008, then the two ‘Kick-Ass’ movies in 2010 and 2013. Next is ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service,’ which opens in theaters next month, and Millar’s got several more projects (like ‘Nemesis,’ ‘Superior’) in the pipeline behind it.

One of the few misses on Millar’s resume is ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ which made only $60 million worldwide, almost 40 percent less than the first ‘Kick-Ass’ grossed in theaters. The sequel’s relatively weak showing essentially killed the possibility of a ‘Kick-Ass 3’ along with another potential project that might have been even more interesting: A spinoff movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz’s teenage killing machine Hit-Girl.

Talking up ‘Kingsman’ with IGN, Millar divulged some of the details on the aborted ‘Hit-Girl’ movie:

“Before ‘Kick-Ass 2’ came out we’d been talking about a Hit-Girl spinoff movie. We’d even talked to a director—we had a couple of calls with Gareth Evans, who I absolutely love. He’s an amazing director. But Gareth’s now busy. Matthew [Vaughn] still floats it occasionally. I’m very philosophical about it—I’ve done my books and I’m really happy with the work and happy with the films. If anything else happens—gravy.”

Evans is the guy who directed ‘The Raid’ and ‘The Raid 2,’ and if there’s anyone I’d like to see unleashed on the concept of a 16-year-old unstoppable vigilante (who’s also a socially maladjusted teen) it’s him. I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘Kick-Ass’ and I really disliked ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ but I’m still a little bummed that this movie didn’t come together. With Evans as director, it could have been a real, uh, what’s the word? Oh yes; a real success story.

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