Not too long ago, my colleagues and I spent a great deal of time ranking the 100 best movies of the 2000s, a list that was (spoiler alert) capped off by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s 2002 crime epic, City of God. This movie, which we gave a five-star review, pretty much changed my life and introduced me to world cinema when I was in high school. So you can imagine how stoked I was to find out that HBO is making a sequel series, which comes out really soon.
Starting August 25th, anyone with HBO or a Max subscription will be able to check out City of God: The Fight Rages On, a series that will pick up years after the events of the landmark film and show us what Alexandre Rodrigues’ Rocket has been up to since we last saw him.
While I am kind of disappointed in myself for not putting two and two together when I was updating our 2024 TV schedule, I can honestly say my excitement trumps any shame, and I cannot wait to check this out.
City Of God: The Fight Rages On Picks Up Two Decades After The 2002 Film
From what I’ve read about the show and learned from the City of God: The Fight Rages On trailer, we’ll pick up two decades after the events of the original film as we follow Wilson “Rocket” Rodrigues as a professional photojournalist (remember, this was a big part of the movie). Returning to his old stomping grounds to photograph everyone from drug dealers to politicians and police to protestors, it sounds like Rocket is going to have quite the experience in his old home.
I Cannot Wait To Go Back To Favela And See What Rocket Has Been Up To
Even though the favela featured in City of God seems like the very definition of “Hell on Earth” and someplace I would never like to visit personally, I can’t help but get excited about the sequel series taking us back to the deadly, drug-infested and lively slums of the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
As depicted in Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s movie, which was based on Paulo Lins’ novel of the same name, the favela was just as culturally rich and diverse as it was violent and was full of as much life as it was death. That duality of the location, much like Rocket’s existence within its confines, is what made City of God so exciting way back when.
Speaking of Rocket, I can’t wait to see what life has been like for him in the 20 years between City of God and The Fight Rages On. No longer the young and idealistic teenager trying to find a way out of the slums, only to get caught in the middle of a gang war, I’m excited to see how the experiences of his youth, and now adulthood, have impacted him.
Though I do have some concerns about the series, like the fact that cinematographer César Charlone didn’t return for the series, I’m beyond stoked to see what the creative team behind City of God: The Fight Rages On has in store for you. If you want to go back and revisit City of God before the sequel series premieres, you can currently stream it with a Paramount+ subscription.