The Director of ‘Spy Kids’ Made a New Netflix Kids Movie Starring Pedro Pascal

Photos: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Robert Rodriguez, the beloved Mexican-American director of family-favorite classics like “Spy Kids” and “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D” is coming out with a new kids movie on Netflix called “We Can Be Heroes”.

According to Netflix, the film will be set in the “Sharkboy and Lavagirl” cinematic universe, and will function as a “standalone sequel” to the classic kids movie. The movie is set to drop on New Year’s Day.

The story will follow the children of a group of superheroes called “The Heroics”. The children of The Heroics must save the planet after their parents are kidnapped by alien invaders. According to the information that Netflix has released, Sharkboy and Lavagirl will be two of the parents who are kidnapped by these villainous aliens. (Yes, Sharkboy and Lavagirl now have a kid together. Yes, we thought they were siblings this entire time.)

While Taylor Dooley, who plays Lavagirl, is reprising her role for “We Can Be Heroes”, Taylor Lautner, unfortunately, will not.

An actor named JJ Dashnaw will step into Sharkboy’s shoes. But to soften the blow of that disappointing recasting news, none of other than Pedro Pascal will be playing one of the lead roles in the movie, a character named Marcus Moreno who is “a superhero on the verge of retirement”.

“I’ve wanted to work with Pedro since forever,” Rodriguez told Entertainment Weekly. “[Marcus] can be a badass if he needs to. He takes the glasses off, and he looks legit.” 

Although Robert Rodriguez is well-known for his family movies like the “Spy Kids” franchise as well as “Shark Boy and Lavagirl”, he has recently focuses his career on more adult fare like “Machete” and “Alita: Battle Angel”. Fans of “Spy Kids” are excited to be treated to a movie that seems like it will be a spiritual successor of the 2001 film. Rodriguez says that families being stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has simply fueled nostalgia for his popular kids movies.

“A lot of families have spent a lot of time together,” he told EW. “I’ve been getting calls from all kinds of studios: ‘Reboot Spy Kids.’ ‘Reboot Sharkboy.’ Of course they want to. They’re all sitting at home with their kids.”

Just this year, Robert Rodriguez talked about how hard he had to fight to make the “Spy Kids” family Latino. “For me it was a big victory … to have the kids in ‘Spy Kids’ be a Latin family,” he explained at a virtual Comic Con panel. “The studio was like, ‘Why are you making them Latin, though, why don’t you just make them American?’ They are American, they’re based on my family.”

“There were no roles being written for Latins at that time, back in 1999, nor were they being cast. If I wasn’t Latin, I would have given up the fight,” he continued. “When you’re doing anything that’s new, this just happens to be about diversity, you’re going to get a question and you have to have a good answer.”

We’re excited to take a look at this new kid-friendly movie! We hope it’s as entertaining as “Spy Kids”.