'Spy Kids' Reboot Really Happening, First Look

The Spy Kids franchise was one of the highlights of children’s entertainment in the early 2000s, combining action, goofy family comedy, and a lot of Steve Buscemi to great effect. Now, a full 12 years after the most recent feature film, Spy Kids is coming back.

However, it does not seem that the franchise has quite enough name recognition to studio executives to get a full theatrical release, so instead, Spy Kids: Armageddon will be released directly to Netflix. While this is not the marker of poor quality as it once was, it still is a little bit of a pity that we won’t really get to see these new adventures on the big screen. Still, we remain cautiously optimistic.

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Writer/director Robert Rodriguez is returning to the series for the reboot, but unlike many legacy sequels like Scream (2022) or Ghostbuster: Afterlife (2020), there does not appear to be any direction connection between the previous films and this one. Instead, it’s just spies… who are also kids.

It actually sounds like Spy Kids: Armageddon is almost a stealth sequel to the original 2001, in which the children of legendary spies learn of their parents’ profession when they are kidnapped and must go on a mission to rescue them.

The parents in the original Spy Kids were played by Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino; this time around, those roles are filled by Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi. The eponymous child espionage agents (previously played by Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) are now played by Everly Carganilla and Connor Esterson.

You can see the whole family here in this first look provided by Netflix:

First look at the ‘Spy Kids’ reboot, set to be released September 22nd on Netflix.

🔗: https://t.co/LnSgsgYrSf pic.twitter.com/oz5bspNf7r

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 31, 2023

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Knowing Robert Rodriguez’s predilection for stuffing his projects with cameos from his famous friends (ranging from fellow director Quentin Tarantino to Sylvester Stallone), it would not be surprising if some familiar faces from the original series do end up appearing. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Are you excited about the new Spy Kids? Let us know in the comments below!