The role of Zorro catapulted Antonio Banderas to mainstream fame in the United States, but the actor only reprised one of his most iconic roles one other time and he hasn’t been seen wearing the mask since. But, if you ask the actor, he’d love to a third movie if only to get a chance to pass the mantle. S.
Banderas starred in 1998’s The Mask of Zorro and its 2005 sequel The Legend of Zorro. The star appeared along with other notable actors Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Matt Letscher.
The actor has expressed interest in returning to the role, perhaps for one last adventure, eventually handing the title of the masked vigilante to a younger generation actor. Apparently, Banderas has been in conversations with parties interested in making a third movie.
Banderas did not reveal the specifics of the conversations but said that he was approached with “different ideas” for a third film. However, he is pretty committed to playing the role of mentor similar to what Anthony Hopkins was to him in the first film.
“I’ve had people approaching with different ideas,” Banderas revealed to Yahoo! Entertainment. “Obviously if I do another movie now, I would play the [mentor] character that Anthony Hopkins did in the first version, I [would] be the character that passes the torch to the new Zorro, which would be great, just to do so. But you know, if it comes, great. If it doesn’t, you know, the other two are there forever.”
The actor also revealed that director Quentin Tarantino entertained the idea of a Zorro / Django crossover film.
“He talked to me, I think on the Oscar night [in 2020] when I was nominated for Pain and Glory,” Banderas said. “We saw each other at one of those parties. He just came up to me and I was like, ‘In your hands? Yeah, man!’ Because Quentin just has that nature to do those type of movies and give them quality. Even if they are based on those types of B-movies of the ’60s and ’70s, he can take that material and do something really interesting. We’ve never worked together, but it would be great because of him, because of Jamie Foxx, and because of [playing] Zorro again when he’s a little bit older. It would be fantastic and funny and crazy.”
Banderas has previously said that he would be happy to pass the role of Zorro to Tom Holland, an actor he liked after the two of them worked on last year’s Uncharted live-action adaptation. However, the statement was met with controversy as critics pointed out that would race-bend an explicitly Latino character.
Even though Banderas turned 63 in a few weeks, recent movies like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 have shown that Hollywood actors can still perform action movies well into their 60s and beyond.
But, if Banderos does come back as Zorro, we’re hoping that his return does more like the latter than the former. Because, while Tom Cruise is enjoying one of his best box office outings to date, you can’t exactly say the same for Harrison Ford.
