Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a visual spectacle, but despite there being plans for more movies following the adventures of Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne), a sequel never happened. In 2017, Luc Besson brought his live-action version of the French sci-fi comic book series Valérian and Laureline, by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. The project stood out not just for its content but because of its budget and Besson’s efforts to get the funds for the movie. After some bumps on the road, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was released in 2017.

Set in the 28th century, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets follows Valerian and Laureline, two special operatives for the space station of Alpha. Valerian and Laureline are tasked with protecting the city from when a dark force threatens it, and they would not only be saving the city but the future of the universe as well. Given its source material, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets had the potential to expand with sequels and even more, but the movie never got a sequel, despite Besson’s plans for it.

Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets Was Too Expensive (& A Box Office Flop)

Valerian Holds An Expensive Record

It’s undeniable that Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is visually impressive, but all those visual effects weren’t enough to win critics and audiences over. Valerian got mixed reviews from critics and currently holds a 47% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes along with a 53% audience score, both labeling it “rotten.” The most criticized element of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was its story, which some found to be “boring” and not match the excitement of the visuals. However, the biggest obstacle to Valerian’s future was its box office numbers.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was made on a budget of around $180 million, making it the most expensive European movie and the most expensive independent movie ever made. With that in mind, Valerian needed to gross $400 million worldwide to break even and be granted a sequel, but it only got to $226 million. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was a box office bomb, and this, along with its not-very-good critical reception, led to a sequel never happening.

Luc Besson Had Plans For More Valerian Movies

The Potential & Ideas Were There

In 2017, before the release of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Luc Besson revealed he would have loved to make a sequel, saying that he was already writing a second movie. DeHaan later revealed that Besson had spoken about making at least two more Valerian movies, so that was the plan, though both mentioned the importance of the audience’s reception. A couple of months later, once the movie had been released, Besson shared he had the script for Valerian 2 and was working on the third.

In an interview with Screen Rant in November 2017, Besson shared he wasn’t planning on expanding Valerian with a TV series, and his plan was to keep adapting the comic books into movies. Ultimately, Besson’s plans and scripts for more Valerian movies never got a chance, and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the only adaptation of the comic books that Besson could bring to life.