Billy Zane wants to return as The Phantom in a legacy sequel

The Phantom
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Billy Zane wants to ā€˜pass the torchā€™ in another Phantom movie, reprising his 1996 superhero turn that was, in some ways, ahead of its time. 1996ā€™s The Phantom is a movie that enjoys at least a bit of a cult following. Had it released at another point in time, it may even have amassed a wider audience upon release, perhaps spawned sequels or (wishful thinking on my part), become the first step in a Defenders Of The Earth live-action film. A project that would have united ā€˜The Ghost who Walksā€™ with Flash Gordon, Mandrake and more to form an Avengers Assemble-style movie based on the Saturday morning cartoon. Either way, a quarter century since the filmā€™s release, The Phantom still has its fans, as evidenced by HMVā€™s re-release of the film via its ā€˜Premium Classicsā€™ Blu-ray line, last year. Itā€™s entirely possible that the movie was a little too far ahead of its time. A little too dark for 1996, sandwiched by Joel Schumacherā€™s garishly neon, cartoony Batman films, The Phantom would have felt much more at home had it released five years later, sitting alongside the likes of Blade and X-Men.  The filmā€™s star, Billy Zane, agrees, and has been touting the possibility of reviving the character for a legacy sequel, where he would ā€˜pass the torchā€™ to a younger version of the character. As Zane puts it, ā€œto be honest, a Phantom return would be quite interesting. 20 years later, itā€™s a father-to-son business and a bit of a hand-off. And I dug him because he didnā€™t have superpowers, really. It was just kind of super-humane. Again, that moral compass could be a nice reminder. So, right out of the comic universe, Iā€™d say that character would be a hoot.ā€ Zane originally signed up to reprise his role in two more sequels, but that never came to pass, a fate which also befell attempts in 2014 to get a reboot off the ground. With Paramount, along with every other streaming platform, presumably looking for IP to revive, perhaps the time is ripe for The Phantomā€™s return? Weā€™ll have to wait and see. ComicBook ā€” Thank you for visiting! If youā€™d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here. Become a Patron here.
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