<p id=”par-1_45″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/hugh-jackman/”>Hugh Jackman</a> was very fond of his sci-fi project <em>Real Steel</em>, a movie he and <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/hugh-jackman-reunites-cast-real-steel-10-year-anniversary-will-there-be-sequel.html/”>his castmates reunited to reminisce about</a> not too long ago. Apart from enjoying the film’s story, he also felt it pushed the envelope in one way James Cameron’s <em>Avatar </em>did.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-what-real-steel-took-from-avatar-according-to-hugh-jackman”>What ‘Real Steel’ took from ‘Avatar’ according to Hugh Jackman</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Real-Steel-Hugh-Jackman.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Hugh Jackman poses during a photo call to promote his new film Real Steel in a black outfit.” class=”wp-image-3769258″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Hugh Jackman | Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_76″><em>Real Steel </em>was a different kind of boxing movie than something like Sylvester Stallone’s <em>Rocky </em>franchise. The sci-fi feature saw Jackman playing a former boxer who helped build mechanical fighters for money. Jackman most likely wouldn’t have attached himself to the film if the premise focused solely on fighting robots. What drew him in was the drama he read in the movie’s script. It reminded him of the drama that he saw in other boxing movies.</p>
<p id=”par-3_63″> “A movie about robot boxing in itself wouldn’t be enough to draw me into it as an actor. But the special effects here are more in service to the story. It more reminded me of those movies I loved growing up, <em>Rocky</em>, <em>Chariots of Fire</em>, <em>The Champ</em>, these kind of rousing, underdog stories. I’m a sucker for ’em,” Jackman once told <a href=”https://www.cleveland.com/moviebuff/2011/10/hugh_jackman_talks_real_steel.html”>Cleveland</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-4_16″>Jackman also couldn’t help but to show his passion for Stallone’s blockbuster franchise during the interview.</p>
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<p id=”par-5_52″>“I probably saw every one of those movies ten or 15 times. I know the critics didn’t like <em>Rocky IV</em>. I still like <em>IV</em>— ‘I am Drago, I will break you!’ — I can still hear it. I was right in the zone for those. I’m a big sports fan,” he said.</p>
<p id=”par-6_78″>Additionally, Jackman was also impressed by the film’s use of technology. He commended the film for relying very little on green screens. He felt it would’ve offered audiences a similar experience they might get from <em>Avatar</em>. <em>Avatar </em>was a box-office juggernaut only a few movies like <em>Spider-Man No Way Home </em><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/spider-man-no-way-home-officially-dethroned-avatar-750-million-domestic-gross.html/”>managed to dethrone</a>. <em>Real Steel </em>didn’t come close to the movie’s commercial success. But it did offer audiences a similar visual spectacle they might’ve seen in Cameron’s projects.</p>
<p id=”par-7_109″>“There is no CGI in this movie,” Jackman said. “If you see a robot in this movie that is not walking or fighting, that’s a real robot, fully operational, with a remote control. The rest was done with motion-capture, so we were usually acting opposite guys in ridiculous green pajamas with the electrodes all over. It used to always be green-screens and maybe you would get a tennis ball on the end of a stick and that was supposed to be the monster or whatever. But there are no green-screens in this movie at all. This is the technology used in <em>Avatar</em>. It’s all gone to the next level.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-why-there-wasn-t-a-sequel-to-real-steel”>Why there wasn’t a sequel to ‘Real Steel’</h2>
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<p id=”par-8_91″><em>Real Steel </em>wasn’t a movie that changed cinematic history. However, it did enjoy modest success. A decent amount of critics gave the movie positive reviews, and it performed adequately at the box-office. In an interview with <a href=”https://ew.com/movies/real-steel-oral-history-hugh-jackman-evangeline-lilly-anthony-mackie/”>Entertainment Weekly</a>, Jackman said he didn’t revisit the <em>Real Steel </em>franchise because he didn’t believe in sequels. Seeing as he starred in <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/x-men-movie-order-hugh-jackmans-wolverine-ryan-reynolds-deadpool.html/”>so many <em>X-Men </em>movies</a>, his comments weren’t meant to be taken seriously. But the film’s director, Shawn Levy, gave a more serious answer as to why a <em>Real Steel </em>2 was never made.</p>
<p id=”par-9_97″>“We had some ideas right as we were finishing the movie, but none of them felt fully formed and special enough. Are we sure we can top it? We never got to that draft,” Levy said. “Then also, just being honest, the movie made like $300 million. But in retrospect, I think we would both agree that it was marketed as like <em>Transformers</em> Light, but it was never <em>Transformers</em>. It was always a father-son movie, and if it had been released, frankly, I don’t have hard feelings about this, but I think it’s a fact, you’re never going to out-robot <em>Transformers</em>.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_33″>But Levy and Jackman were still open to doing a second <em>Real Steel </em>movie. Especially since there was still a sizable amount of fan-demand for the project a decade after the film’s release.</p>