'Kick-Ass 3' Won't Feature Chloe Grace Moretz's Hit-Girl (If It Ever Gets Made)

Earlier this month, we wrote about how director Matthew Vaughn announced plans to get behind the camera for a reboot of Kick-Ass, his 2010 movie that was based on writer Mark Millar's comic book. One of that film's most memorable characters is Hit-Girl, a trained assassin played by the then-13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz. Moretz reprised the role in 2013's Kick-Ass 2, but now the actress says she won't be coming back to play that part in an eventual Kick-Ass 3 – and it sounds like Kick-Ass 2 could be to blame for that.

Moretz recently participated in a panel discussion at the Provincetown Film Festival (via IndieWire), and the conversation turned to whether or not she'd be interested in playing the role of Hit-Girl again. Despite tons of talk over the years of Hit-Girl returning in Kick-Ass 3 or even getting her own spin-off movie, it sounds like Moretz is hanging up her cape for good:

"I love the franchise. I think the first movie was really, really special. I wish the second one had been handled in a little bit of a different way. Because I think we were all kind of looking forward to something a little different than what happened with it all.

"As much as I love the character of Hit-Girl, I think she lives and survives in 'Kick-Ass,' and I kind of want to keep her there. I kinda wanna keep everyone's mind in 'Kick-Ass.' So I don't think there will be a 'Kick-Ass 3,' at least I don't think with Hit-Girl in it."

The good news for Moretz? I don't think many people think much about Kick-Ass 2 these days. That film is a dirty, grimy piece of comic book nastiness, a movie that features a brutal decapitation, an attempted rape, and half a dozen other things that would inspire thinkpieces galore if it were released today. Moretz's Hit-Girl is the best thing about it, but her performance wasn't enough to overpower the film's relentless unpleasantness. (Remember when Jim Carrey showed up as a superhero in that movie? I had forgotten all about that.)

If a Kick-Ass 3 does ever get off the ground, Mark Millar wants Tessa Thompson to play the starring role of Patience Lee, the new female version of Kick-Ass who originated in the pages of his comics. But it sounds like he and Vaughn will need to find a new Hit-Girl if that character is involved in the reboot.