Vin Diesel Teases A Possible Sequel To 'The Iron Giant'

Just last week brought the trailer for The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, a new Blu-Ray release of the 1999 animated film from The Incredibles director Brad Bird, which will also be hitting theaters for a couple days this fall. And if one of the film's stars is to be believed, this re-release of the movie might be a way of testing the waters for a forthcoming sequel.

For those who don't know, Vin Diesel was the voice of the titular giant robot who crash lands on Earth and befriends a young boy, making for quite the charming and unique update of the familiar E.T. The Extra Terrestrial tale. And Diesel recently took to his Facebook page to post the Signature Edition trailer, and he teased that Warner Bros. might be on the verge of making The Iron Giant 2 happen.

Along with the Signature Edition trailer (which you can watch right here), Diesel said:

"I have been very lucky to have played so many interesting characters... one of the first and one of my favorites is... the Iron Giant.

P.s. Don't be surprised when you hear WB announce the sequel."

This could easily just be Diesel's wishful thinking once the film hits theaters again for people to experience all over again, and for a new generation of kids to see for the first time. After all, it's been 16 years since the film came out, and there are people who were kids when the movie came out who have young ones of their own now. The movie wasn't a box office hit when it came out, but it's become a cult favorite among many today.

But the idea of a sequel wouldn't be entirely out of left field since the ending of the original left it open for a sequel that would see the return of the weaponized robot turned peaceful friend of the planet. The only issue might be that Brad Bird is busy working on another overdue sequel, The Incredibles 2, so who knows how long it would be before The Iron Giant 2 actually came to fruition.

Still, it's very cool to see Diesel still be so fond and passionate about a movie that he made two years before he starred in the first Fast & Furious movie. And this is a movie in which he had very few lines, much like his turn as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy (though his lines in The Iron Giant are more varied). However, Diesel's final line as the character is a truly great one on par with "We are Groot."

The question is whether or not the rest of the cast would come back for a sequel too. The voice cast included Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Cloris Leachman and Christopher McDonald, but those were all the adults in the movie. The child star who voiced the young boy Hogarth was Eli Marienthal, who is now 29 years old and doesn't seem to be acting anymore. If the sequel takes into account real time that has passed since the movie came out, would he voice an adult Hogarth? It's too early to tell.

For now, fans will just have to wait to catch The Iron Giant on the big screen again when it hits theaters on Wednesday, September 30th at 7pm local time and October 4th and 12pm local time in select theaters. This version will have two scenes that were deleted from the original release, and you can find out where to see it in theaters right here.