While celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kick-Ass film, Mark Millar spoke about how difficult it was for him and director Matthew Vaughn to sell the movie to studios. One aspect that both he and the studios debated over was the notion of an 11-year-old superhero who'd cuss.
Millar revealed that among the many suggestions that certain studios made was to cast an older woman as Hit-Girl According to Millar, one studio delivered nine pages of notes, "They called Hit-Girl a disaster and said the only way to save her was to make her 25 instead of 10 years old," Millar told The Hollywood Reporter, "They also said no one wanted to hear superheroes cuss and recommended hand-to-hand combat instead of knives and guns."
Chloe Grace Moretz, then just 10, would eventually get the role after auditioning. After the film's release, many critics were displeased with how the 11-year-old Hit-Girl was put into violent situations and used adult language throughout the film.
Kick-Ass went on to gross $19 million on its opening weekend on a budget of $28 million. Worldwide the film came below $100 million, but it still garnered praise from fans for its visual style and violent action sequences. The film's strong cult following would help spawn a sequel in 2013.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Kick-Ass stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Evan Peters, Lyndsy Fonseca, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, and Garrett M. Brown.