The director first revealed the plot of the canceled sequel

John CarterThe disappointing commercial and critical reception is better known than the film itself. director Andrew StantonThe potential franchise startup was so promising that the mere thought of inefficiency seemed out of the question. But on March 9, 2012, the film, which Stanton had been waiting decades to shoot, received mediocre numbers and negative critical reviews. The film grossed $284 million worldwide, which would have made it a success had the studio not matched it with a rumored production budget of $300 million. The dream is dead, as is any chance to start a bold new sci-fi franchise. For years, those who watched the film and loved it wondered why it failed so spectacularly. Those who didn’t care simply dismissed it as just another failed Hollywood shenanigan.

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For those who haven’t seen the original or need a refresher, the gist of the first film is that it takes place between 1868 and 1881, when Confederate Army Captain John Carter (played by Taylor Kitsch) is accidentally transported to Mars with an alien medallion he finds while running from Union soldiers. Upon arriving on Mars (referred to by its inhabitants as Barsoom), Carter discovers that his bone density, combined with the planet’s low gravity, endows him with enhanced physical abilities. The deeply lost human soldier soon finds himself face to face with the Green Martians called the Tarks, led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe). Unbeknownst to Carter, civil unrest between the various Martian races escalates, with the red Martian princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) hit the middle with it. Shape-shifting thorns led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong) further complicate the situation, leading to a deadly conflict on many fronts. The first film ends with Carter returning to Mars after faking his own death, tricking Shang and winning an old challenge that trapped him on Earth.

In the months leading up to the release of John Carter in 2012, Stanton mentioned several times that he had plans for a sequel in case the first film was successful. However, he did not reveal what those plans were or what the sequels would look like. Until now.

During a recent interview with The Wrap, Stanton revealed the plot details of the canceled sequel titled gods of mars, for the first time:

I like the idea that you’re going to start with the prologue. Each film was supposed to have a different prologue. The first is Willem as Tarsus. The second prologue was to be Deja. And it was meant to give anyone who didn’t see the first movie a little background on the story that led you to this movie. Transcript, interesting images, whether it’s a work of art or something like that. And then you were going to show that she told it to her child. And you were about to realize, my God, it’s a baby. This is Carthoris, the child of Dejah Thoris and Carter. And the story that she tells, she tells the story of the father that this child will never know.

And then her father, Ciarana Hinds’ character, Tardos Mors, said that she had not slept for too long, she was tired, let her grandfather stay with the child, and I will put her to bed. It was then revealed to be Matai Shan in shapeshifting mode. And he was going to steal the baby. And then it was going to go to the opening credits. The next image after the opening credits was supposed to be Carter, lying in his funeral suit in the middle of the desert, just looking like a dead body from the wake and having just woken up.

Originally intended to be the start of a film adaptation of a trilogy of films. Edgar Rice BurroughsBarsoom of the book, once made by John Carter failed due to several problems that were almost impossible to predict when the production was approved. One of the biggest hurdles the project never got over was its ill-fated marketing campaign. During production, Disney’s new head of film marketing MT Carney decided to remove the word “Mars” from the name. Stanton did not approve, but he did not resist the challenge either. “It wasn’t my choice,” Stanton told TheWrap. “It was suggested and I didn’t resist it.” They didn’t know it then, but the possibility of a sequel was more and more out of reach. The marketing was too confusing, too confusing.

Willem Dafoe John Carter

Image courtesy of The Walt Disney Studios.

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Teasers, posters, and other promotional material began to appear online in July 2011, but none of them mentioned Stanton, Burrows, or any of the other respected writers in charge of the project. Stanton was a director at Pixar. Finding Nemo Burroughs had created the Tarzan character eight years earlier, but Disney did not include any of those tidbits in their marketing of the film. It was Stanton’s first attempt at a live-action blockbuster, but his considerable success as a director convinced Disney management to give him a shot. Unfortunately, their trust in him was not reflected in the marketing. Ultimately, because John Carter’s marketing was so ineffective, a sequel was next to impossible.

Still, Stanton’s vision of what could have been is fascinating. He said:

Then he will just take off his jacket, as if nothing had happened, and just go. And then, in the end, as in “Lawrence of Arabia”, somewhere far away on the horizon, a thark on a tot will appear. And he’s going to surprise Carter by saying that he knows exactly who he is and that someone has been looking for you. He brings him to the camp, and this is Kantos Kan, that is, James Purefoy, who was always looking for any river where this guy went. And so shocked that he found it. And then he says, “You must come back now to heal him.” And he comes back and you think it’s going to be a reunion, only to find out that some time has passed between the prologue and the main credits.

Now Deja is gone. She is convinced that the Terns have taken their child, and if Carter ever returns, she traveled down the Iss River to try and find him. And then, like in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, it all happens, everyone goes to earth to find out who really controls the entire planet. There is a whole race that has been associated with high technology. In fact, it was the third world that no one on the surface knew about, and the first world was inside all this time, controlling air, water and everything that supported the functioning of the world.

Stanton was clearly the right person for the job, but a convoluted marketing strategy, combined with the difficulties of the animation director’s first foray into live-action, killed the project he had fought so hard for.

We’ll never see Gods of Mars on the big screen (at least not from Stanton or Disney), so this new information is the closest we’ll ever get to experience.

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about the author

The director first revealed the plot of the canceled sequel

Hayden Mears (25 articles published)

Hayden Mears is an autistic journalist whose work has appeared in more than a dozen publications. You can find his work in Starburst Magazine, The Playlist, Screen Rant, Eisner Award-winning comic book magazine PanelxPanel, and more.

Other works by Hayden Mears

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