Director Robert Rodriguez’s family-friendly franchise Spy Kids is making a comeback. After four live-action movies and an animated TV series over the last 21 years, a fifth film will debut on Netflix, and Rodriguez has cast his new multicultural family.
On Thursday morning (June 23), Deadline reported that Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), Zachary Levi (Shazam!), Everly Carganilla (Yes Day), and newcomer Connor Esterson would star in the leading roles.
“Exciting news!” Carganilla wrote on her Instagram page.
“Tnx spy dad!!” Esterson wrote to Levi on his Instagram page. “It’s awesome to work with you!! To my spy sister [Everly Carganilla] and the star-maker [Gina Rodriguez]. So hyped for this!”
Robert Rodriguez will write, direct and produce the film, and his son, Racer, will serve as co-writer. When he was a kid, Racer was credited as a screenwriter on his father’s 2005 adventure flick, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. The new family film will be Robert Rodriguez’s second with Netflix after the 2020 superhero adventure We Can Be Heroes, which starred Pedro Pascal.
The original Spy Kids movie debuted in 2001 and starred Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino as Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez, a mom and dad who moonlight as spies. When the couple is captured by their enemies, their kids (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) set out on a mission to save them.
The main cast returned for the sequels Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams in 2002 and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003. In 2011, a fourth film, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, recast the family with Jessica Alba and Joel McHale as the parents and Rowan Blanchard and Rebecca Wilson as the kids.
