Real Steel hasn’t even hit theaters yet and there’s already buzz about a sequel. Of course, nothing is set in stone at this point, but word is, director Shawn Levy sounds up to the task of taking the robot-boxing story even further, should things work out for the first one when it’s released next month.

Real Steel is set in the near future when robot boxing has taken the place of human boxing among people who love to watch stuff punching other stuff. At the center of the story is Hugh Jackman’s character, a former boxer who uncovers a robot designed to shadow movements and trains it to fight in the ring. Evangaline Lily, Dakota Goyo, Kevin Durand and Anthony Mackie are also set to star. At best, the film could be a sort of comeback story channeling the spirit of Rocky and other big-hearted sports films of the past. At worst, it’s a movie about robots smashing each other to bits. Ideally, it’ll be a little bit (or a lot) of both. Regardless of what it is, in the end, if does well at the box office, a sequel could follow.

BleedingCool.com spoke with Levy following the London premiere of Real Steel, and it sounds like the director is up to the task of doing the sequel. On the subject of returning to the story for another film, Levy said:

We really fricking hope so… Some of the notions we’re playing with… for instance we went very anthropomorphic in both the design and the movement of the robots in this movie, I think we can really blow that out. The class warfare between underworld and [World Robot Boxing], that’s something that seems rich. The evolution of this father and son’s relationship, and Hugh’s relationship with Evangeline…

It sounds like Levy sees ways to take the story and the robots even further, which is good news for those of us who already think the first film looks pretty good. If things go well for the film at the box office, there could be more robot fights in store for movie-goers down the line. Bleeding Cool had good things to say about the film itself. Hopefully we'll be hearing more good feedback on the movie as the release date approaches.

Real Steel will be in theaters on October 7th. More on the film here