It’s hard to believe how long toy maker Mattel has been trying to get a movie or television show based on its long-running miniature car line, Hot Wheels, going. For more than two decades, this idea has languished in the horrible concept that is “development hell.” That was why it was exciting when it was announced that J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot production banner would develop the movie for Warner Bros with director Jon M. Chu attached to direct. Those who only know Chu for his musical content, such as the blockbuster Wicked, In the Heights, and two Step Up movies, but many other movies, may have been surprised to hear his interest in an action movie based on a toy line. One has to wonder whether the announcement was timed to capitalize on the interest in racing movies with the success of Brad Pitt‘s F1: The Movie.
What’s particularly interesting about the concept of a Hot Wheels movie is that the toys offer an even larger blank slate of ideas than Mattel’s hugely successful (and Oscar-winning!) Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie. Essentially, they are just fantasized cars that fly around customized racetracks that are nothing like what one might see in the real world, via NASCAR, Formula 1, and the like. If you were a kid any time since the late 60s, you’re likely to have owned at least a couple of Hot Wheels cars and probably some of the cool tracks on which you could race them.
What Exactly Are ‘Hot Wheels’?
In 1968, Mattel introduced a line of toy cars to compete with the hugely popular Matchbox line. Created and designed by Elliot Handler, these toy vehicles were never meant to be realistic cars, like ones you might see driving down the street. They were even more souped-up than the race cars of the time, possibly influencing or predicting the direction the sport would eventually go. If the name of the toy line wasn’t clear enough, the big selling point of Hot Wheels was the specially-designed wheels that could adhere to the racing tracks (sold separately!), making them more fun to race than any similar toy car. Hot Wheels has remained among the most lasting and top-selling toy brands over the past 55 years, even getting an NBC competition series called Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge in 2023, involving people redesigning real vehicles from their past. Just last year, Mattel announced a collaboration with Formula One to bring various teams’ cars into the line, which ties things together even closer to F1: The Movie.
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What About Hot Wheels Makes Them So Perfect for a Movie?
From their very introduction, Mattel wanted to make sure that Hot Wheels were seen as significantly different and better than Matchbox. Much of that came down to the racetrack sets designed by Matchbox and the fact that the wheels on the cars were designed for superfast racing around those tracks. One of the more exciting tracks involved a loop-de-loop like you might see on a roller coaster, which was quite groundbreaking for its time.
In other words, any Hot Wheels racing sequences would have to look significantly different and possibly more exciting than the races in F1, Ford v Ferrari, or Ron Howard‘s Rush. It could be a racing movie more akin to the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer, rather than anything like the many racing movies based on real-life events. In other words, there are many ways in which Hot Wheels could differ from other racing movies. Similar to Barbie, it would be based in fantasy and presumably family-friendly, since the movie is based on actual toys.
What Could Jon M. Chu Bring To This Property?
Chu benefits from having already been working with Bad Robot and Warner Bros. on an animated feature based on Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go, so that relationship is already in place. Chu also already has significant experience directing action thanks to 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, featuring Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson, and the equally star-studded Now You See Me 2, from 2016. Chu’s work on the Wicked movies also shows he’s able to create fantastic worlds, which could make a great backdrop for a racing movie that should go further into worlds of fantasy than others. Presumably, this would be done as a PG family film, and Chu has five children himself, making one think he’s been itching to continue working in a family-friendly realm after Wicked. Of course, adding this project to his plate might mean we’ll have to wait even longer for Chu to make a sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, which would be a shame, since that was a very popular movie with significant Asian representation.
An odd side note is that an action movie based on the Matchbox cars line – ironically, Mattel bought that company in 1997 – is already in development through Apple Studios, the studio behind F1, with an all-star cast headed by John Cena, and directed by Extraction filmmaker, Sam Hargrave, making one wonder how that might differ from a Hot Wheels movie. Maybe that will be a good gauge for Hot Wheels, since there is likely to be a lot of the usual internet cynicism towards the movie, as there is for any movie based around a toy. That was also the case with Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie movie until people started seeing it. Either way, Chu certainly has a lot of variety in his vast filmography, and the announcement that he would take over the Hot Wheels project might finally end Mattel’s “Hot Wheels curse.”
