The Russo brothers will make the remake of the movie about the most famous killer whale in film

There’s an obvious nostalgia for the ’90s that’s currently being exploited in cinema and that doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon. In fact, it seems it’s only just beginning. And the next candidate to tug at our heartstrings is a big star we hadn’t heard about in years and, truth be told, we weren’t expecting it. Because it looks like we’re going to get a remake of the most famous orca in film history: Willy.

A somewhat questionable reboot

According to reports from Variety, Warner Bros., together with AGBO, the Russo brothers’ production company, want to make a reboot of the iconic film Free Willy. With a script by Mary-Margaret Kunze, who previously co-produced several MCU series, and Jade Halley Bartlett, who wrote and directed the questionable Miller’s Girl.

While the original film was a notable box-office success, to the point of spawning three sequels and an animated series, it ended up being more famous for the tragic story of its star than for the film itself. The orca Keiko, the star of the film, was freed after filming and, after joining another group of orcas, died because, having been born in captivity, she didn’t know how to live in the wild.

Given what happened to Keiko, in this reboot they’ll use CGI for all the animals. Making this moving story about animal freedom, at last, one without animals being enslaved in the first place. A step forward that the original sequels had already taken, but which they’ll be taking from the start with the reboot that it remains to be seen whether it’ll actually happen but which, in principle, seems to be on the horizon.