Atlantis: The Lost Empire certainly isn’t the first film that comes to mind to many when talking about the best Disney movies of all time. However, it definitely has its fans despite mixed critical reception and disappointing box office returns.
Unlike many of Disney’s movies, it did not receive a sequel. Well, at least not a proper one. One would arrive in the form of 2003 direct-to-video Atlantis: Milo’s Return – but this was formed from the scraps of a canned spin-off cartoon. But thanks to a recent Collider interview with Atlantis director Kirk Wise, we have learned that a true theatrical sequel was planned before the project bit the bullet.
Wise revealed that he and Story Supervisor John Sanford “actually concocted an idea for a sequel to Atlantis. It had no relation to the Atlantis TV series that was being developed at Disney Television Animation. This was a feature-length, full-on, full-blown sequel to Atlantis”.
In fact, the story of the proposed film was completely mapped out, with a villain from the first movie making a surprise appearance as Wise explains:
The sub-villainess from the first film miraculously survived its epic events and “became an early-20th-century cyborg and started her own team of mercenaries”, according to Wise.
