Luc Besson had a sequel planned for The Fifth Element, but a few years before that he made the action thriller Léon: The Professional, starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman in her cinematic debut.
Léon: The Professional follows french hitman or “cleaner” León (Reno), who lives a solitary life in New York City working for a mob boss named Tony. Mathilda (Portman) is a 12-year-old who lives in the same building as León. After her family is murdered by corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), León takes Mathilda in, and she becomes his protégée and forms a very close (and unusual) relationship with him. The film’s ending didn’t leave any loose ends, but Besson had a sequel planned that, after a few obstacles, found new life as a different project.
Besson’s original idea for a Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. As a result, Gaumont Film Company held the rights to Léon, and so Mathilda didn’t happen.
However, the script wasn’t left on a shelf, as it was used as the basis for Olivier Megaton’s Colombiana, produced by Besson and EuropaCorp. Very much like Mathilda in Leon, Colombiana’s protagonist Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) is a “cleaner” whose family was killed by a drug lord when she was younger. Years later, she goes to war with a drug cartel as revenge. Sadly, Colombiana wasn’t well received by critics, who pointed out Besson’s influence in the story.
Whether it was better to have a different film like Colombiana or no sequel at all is up to every viewer. Although it would have been interesting to see how Mathilda copes with the loss of both her family and Léon, the ending of Léon: The Professional gave good closure to the character and left viewers the chance to imagine their own future for Mathilda - so a sequel doesn’t feel necessary.
