"We don't feel a burning imperative to go back into it," said Hancock director Peter Berg a few days ago. Columbia Pictures feels differently however (maybe their imperative is that $624m gross), and The Hollywood Reporter has news this morning that writers are banging out a sequel for Will Smith's shabby superhero as we speak.
The original producing team are all expected to be back, but the new writers are Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara. Fierro has written for The Shield, 24 and Dexter while Mazzara's CV includes Nash Bridges and the TV spinoff of Crash (the Paul Haggis film, not the Cronenberg one).
No plot details yet, other than that the projected follow-up would "build on the world hinted at in the first movie". Does that mean a prequel, set at some time in the past, pre Hancock's amnesia, when there are more superhumans around? Or are we looking at a clunky Highlander-style revelation that Hancock wasn't the last one after all?
There are plenty of questions about the superhumans' origins that further films could explore, but the original's quirkiest tweak to a potentially formulaic idea was Jason Bateman's PR advisor. Will there be further stories for Bateman, or is his part in the saga done with? You'll know as soon as we do.