They Have Failed Twice Before

Ben 10, the super famous cartoon that shaped millions of kids’ childhoods – and continues to do so – has once again dodged a major bullet that could have seriously hindered its reputation: A live-action film. Warner Bros. announced this in the wake of events that seemingly confirmed that the animated projects just weren’t enough for them to derive enough profits and satisfaction.

However, it seems like the motion picture entertainment company’s wish to milk this cow to the core has fallen short, as exclusive reports reveal that the long-overdue Ben Tennyson movie has finally been canceled. Of course, this news comes as a displeasure to very few, considering how fans have already had enough of this character live through its 2 previously failed films.

New Ben 10 Live-Action Film Has Reportedly Been Dumped

More than a decade ago, in 2011, Variety reported that producer Joel Silver was going to bring to the table yet another Ben 10 live-action project. This would have encompassed another thrilling adventure of the young Ben Tennyson, who can transform into ten unique alien forms using his iconic Omnitrix all the while retaining his human form and child personality.

But that was the only developing update on the making of this project. That was until now when exclusive reports from The Direct have confirmed that this live-action project on the fan-favorite character has reportedly been nixed. The reason behind the project’s sudden departure from the developing field is a rather surprising one: Apparently, the rights for the same have expired.

When filmmaker Steve Richards, who was working on the project with Joel Silver, recently walked the red carpet for the premiere of his latest action-comedy The Killer’s Game, The Direct confronted him about the same. To this, he confessed:

When I was working with Joel Silver, we had the rights to that, and, yeah, that expired… But it should get made, right?

While that’s that, adding to it is the fact that Warner Bros. had terminated its business relationship with Silver in 2012, which could have also posed a barrier to the development of this exclusively slashed live-action project.

That said, it doesn’t seem like this project will take flight back again anytime soon – which is good news if looking at the previous live-action films on Tennyson.

First off, there’s 2007’s Ben 10: Race Against Time, which has a rotten 47% on RT with criticism about its “lack of respect for the animated series.” Then there’s 2009’s Alien Swarm, which was equally disappointing with a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes and criticism about “wooden acting, bad CGI and empty sets that make it feel like they ran out of money during production.”

In comparison, nearly all of the character’s animated projects have been fan-favorite successes. Be it Secret of the Omnitrix (2007), Destroy All Aliens (2012), or simply its five concluded cartoon series split into two continuities, fans have been in love with almost all of Tennyson’s animated iterations.

That said, perhaps it would be better to opt for a cartoon film this time around, instead, considering how fans have also been vouching for the same thing.

Fans Want Warner Bros. to “Stick to Animation” Instead

Of course, after coming across all the previous live-action projects on the character, quite a lot of fans had anything but good expectations with this one as well. That said, the news of this movie being slashed by the studios hasn’t really come as a disappointing update to these fans. If anything, they are now rallying louder than ever for the studios to instead stick closer to animation.

As per these fans, the studios really need to focus more on delivering worthy Ben Tennyson content to fans through cartoon projects, preferably even a cartoon movie. Here’s what this part of the fandom has to say on X: