Every few decades are defined by certain pop-culture iconcs; the ‘80s had characters like He-Man and the Ghostbusters, the ‘90s paved the way for the animated X-Men, and the early ‘00s had none other than Ben Tennyson from the hit series Ben 10.
News of a live-action Ben 10 had been around for a while now, but too bad for anyone looking forward to it, because it seems like that project is officially dead.
Live-Action Ben 10 Dead at Warner Bros.
It was reported way back in 2011 that a live-action Ben 10 was in the works with producer Joel Silver, but ever since that announcement, there have been several Ben 10 animated series, but no news on the live-action front.
Now The Direct is reporting that plans for a live-action Ben 10 movie are officially dead. This was confirmed by producer Steve Richards who revealed that the rights they had for the movie simply expired. He said, "I have to admit, I should update my IMDb. No. So, when I was working with Joel Silver, we had the rights to [Ben 10], and, yeah, that expired... But it should get made, right?"
Seeing that Ben 10 had been rebooted several times throughout the 2010s, it would only be a matter of time before someone from the industry would want to bank in on Zoomer nostalgia and have a big-budget live-action Ben 10 film.
“It’s Hero Time!”
For context, Ben 10 was an action sci-fi series created by the writing collective Man of Action. The story follows the adventures of ten-year-old Ben Tennyson who finds an alien watch —called the Omnitrix—that attaches itself to him. What’s cool is, that the Omnitrix allows Ben to transform into 10 different aliens, each with specific powers that help him fight other aliens causing trouble on Earth.
The series has Ben going on a road trip with his cousin Gwen and their Grandpa Max. While Ben is the more mischievous type, Gwen is his constant foil and is more intelligent and composed; plus down the line, it’s revealed she’s quite adept at magic.
As for their grandpa Max, it’s revealed that he’s a member of the Plumbers, an intergalactic police force who was originally intended to be the recipient of the Omnitrix. Max is supposed to have in-depth knowledge of several alien races and has access to all kinds of alien-busting weapons.
The original series debuted in 2005 and has been rebooted three times with Alien Force, Omniverse, and the latest just called Ben 10 running from 2016-2021.
Before the live-action film was announced, there were actually two direct-to-video movies that were released in 2007 with Ben 10: Race Against Time and in 2009 with Ben 10: Alien Swarm.
Nostalgia will Catch Up
Though the live-action movie may not have been able to get off the ground in the early 2010s, the fact that the IP was able to run for so long through a decade is a testament to its popularity. There hasn’t even been a mention of the countless games and merchandise Ben 10 was able to spawn.
For now, it does seem like Hollywood is slowly creeping its way up to revivals of 90s properties; but in a few more years, maybe there could be demand for IP that came out in the 2000s. If Moana can get a live-action reboot, something as popular as Ben 10 is definitely primed for a comeback.
A new Ben 10 property has not been officially announced.