Commando actor Vernon Wells says there has been talk of a prequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic action movie, and even reveals details of the story.
Vernon Wells says that there was once a prequel to Commando in development, and even reveals the details of the story. Released in 1985, Commando was a pivotal film in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s development from a novelty movie to a true action hero.
With a plot about a SWAT soldier trying to save a kidnapped daughter (years later, the same plot would be recycled in Liam Neeson’s Hostage), Commando showed that Schwarzenegger could play simple action roles and didn’t have to spend his career doing to portray almost mute fantasy figures or clumsy robots from the future.
This movie was, of course, completely ridiculous, like many of Schwarzenegger’s action films, but it went on to become a huge favorite on cable TV and became a cult classic. Filled with iconic one-liners, this movie is fondly remembered today as one of Schwarzenegger’s most entertaining films of the 80s.
Given the continued popularity of Commando, it seemed inevitable for a long time that someone would return to the film as a reboot or sequel. In fact, Commando star Wells revealed in a new interview with Forbes that at one time there was talk of a prequel bringing back the characters of John Matrix and Bennett and exploring what happened to them before the events of the original film. Wells said:
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“Somebody in the business said to me a while ago that they’re thinking of doing another Commando. I thought they meant a reboot, so I was like, ‘They can’t redo Commando. It’s a classic. It’s so kitsch,’ but they said they’re not planning on redoing it, they’re thinking of doing a prequel and putting me in it. That would work. They were thinking of doing the prequel about where it all started, how the relationship soured between us, how I became the villain, and how Arnie’s character Matrix became the good guy. Rumors are flying around all the time, but it was interesting that somebody was seriously talking about it. And we don’t know for sure that Bennett died. He might not have.”
In the original film, Wells plays the bad boy Bennett, a former Green Beret colleague of John Matrix Schwarzenegger, who kidnaps the Matrix’s daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano), thus unleashing the Matrix’s wrath on himself and all of his fellow mercenaries. Obviously, such a scenario is ripe for a prequel, as there’s a lot of backstory tied to the former Matrix division that Bennett was a part of before he went off the rails.
Of course, all these many years after the release of the original film, the roles played by Schwarzenegger and Wells will have to be redone (unless someone is willing to invest a lot of money in the degradation of special effects). And while Commando is still a hit with Schwarzenegger fans, it’s fair to
wonder if there will be any general interest in a prequel to a film that doesn’t hold a big place in the general pop culture consciousness. Of course, Commando isn’t as popular with the general public as something like The Terminator, and even the Terminator seems to have run out of gas, as Dark Fate proved.
When it comes to Schwarzenegger objects worth revisiting, Commandos probably doesn’t top the list. But perhaps as a low-budget action movie aimed specifically at fans of 80s films, a film about a young John Matrix would be something worthwhile. At the very least, the movie could answer the burning question of whether his name is really John Matrix (because it’s a really ridiculous name).