Action filmmaker Luc Besson (Taken, The Transporter) and his production company EuropaCorp recently announced their slate of films currently in development. Among the titles are Nine Lives with Kevin Spacey, Escobar with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, The Transporter Refueled sans Jason Statham, Valerian with Dane Dehaan and Cara Delevingne, as well as sequels to the female action films Lucy (2014) and Colombiana (2011) which starred Scarlett Johansson and Zoe Saldana respectively.

Both of these assassin sequels come as somewhat of a surprise seeing as Colombiana had a meager box office return when it was released back in 2011 and just last year Besson made the following comment regarding a second Lucy film: “I don’t see how we can do a [sequel]. It’s not made for that.” Reasons for a second Colombiana could have something to do with Saldana’s star power rising since 2011 with the Star Trek franchise, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and an upcoming Avatar sequel. For Lucy, either a rebooted concept or fresh inspiration may have caused Besson to change his tune, or even perhaps the recent push in Hollywood to greenlight female-led action/superhero projects was incentive enough.

There is no word yet on whether or not Johansson or Saldana will be signing on to reprise their roles. However, in order for each potential franchise to pick up steam, their involvement could be necessary. It is also unknown if Besson has started work on the scripts yet, so both projects are in quite early stages of development.