‘We Can Be Heroes’: First Look Takes Us Back to the World of ‘Sharkboy and Lavagirl’!! Check It Out!!

Netflix has released the first images from the upcoming original film We Can Be Heroes, which hails from writer/director Robert Rodriguez and is set in the same universe as his 2005 film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl that starred Taylor Lautner and Taylor Dooley. This new movie finds alien invaders kidnapping Earth’s superheroes, thus forcing their children to team up and work together to save their parents.

These first-look images reveal a pretty stellar cast that includes Pedro Pascal, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christian Slater, and Boyd Holbrook, while the ensemble also includes Christopher McDonald, Adriana Barraza, Vivien Blair, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Akira Akbar, Lyon Daniels, Nathan Blair, Lotus Blossom, Hala Finley, Andy Walken, Dylan Henry Lau, Andrew Diaz, Taylor Dooley, Sung Kang, Haley Reinhart, J. Quinton Johnson, Brittany Perry-Russell, Brently Heilbron and JJ Dashnaw.

When we spoke with Rodriguez at Comic-Con this summer, he confirmed that Sharkboy and Lavagirl return in We Can Be Heroes but it sounds like cameo roles as he added that only Lavagirl has a speaking role. He said the origin of We Can Be Heroes was Netflix coming to him because his Spy Kids movies had performed so well on the streaming service:

“My most rabid fanbase all these years, by far, has been my kid films. My Spy Kids audience. These kids watch those movies over and over because they’re action films made for children and families, in particular at a time when they need empowerment. Netflix came to me because the Spy Kids movies had done just so well on their service. They said ‘could you make a series of films that do that?’ And I said, “I’d love to! It was hard to make them for the theater because kids couldn’t drive themselves to the theater and watch it a thousand times. Parents would have to take them. With Netflix, they can just sit there and [mimicks hitting a play button]. I don’t have to sit there and watch Glitter Force with my daughter, she can just click it as many times as she wants. That’s why they get such high numbers on those types of films.”

Check out the first images from We Can Be Heroes below. The film premieres on Netflix globally on January 1, 2021.