Seven years on from The Mask of Zorro, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have reunited with director Martin Campbell for a second adventure a decade down the line.
It's an unusually long time between sequels, especially given the first film had been such a massive box office success.
However, were it not for a certain web-slinging superhero, chances are the masked Mexican might never again have buckled his swash.
"We decided that we wouldn't even consider a sequel for four years," explains Campbell.
"But then after Spider-Man 2 the studio came to us and asked if we were prepared to do one. The studios all want franchises but the streets are littered with ones where the second movie didn't come up to par and killed the franchise off.
Spider-Man 2 was a case where the second worked extremely well and the studio said that if we could get the right script then they wanted to bring Zorro back. Considering this was the same studio that had already seen Charlies Angels and xXx sequels fail, it was quite a brave move."
An acceptable script was duly put together by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the writers of TV series Alias (not to mention The Island and Mission Impossible III) and the ball duly began to roll with a storyline that is, essentially, more of the same.
"We left Don Alejandro and Elena happily married at end of last one," recaps Campbell.
"Ten years later they have a son and we have to unmarry them in order to get them back together again at the end so we could reprise the same things.
"This time though we took the theme of family. The story poses a conflict for Zorro. Does he protect his immediate family or his larger family of California?"
Involving a conspiracy to destroy the fledgling United States using massive explosives and instigating a Civil War, the plot is decidedly in tune with the patriotic fervour of George Bush's and America's post 9/11 paranoia.
Campbell insists that the whole flag waving sensibility is in keeping with the mood of 1850 but owns up to having tongue slightly in cheek with the contemporary resonances.
"There was actually a line in the jail where Zorro talks of weapons of mass destruction," he chuckles, "but I thought no, there is a limit!' and I took it out"
While Campbell has reprised the original's in-joke references to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch ("one building was actually the Peckinpah Hotel but it rained and the sign faded"), although a character's death doesn't have to prove an insurmountable problem, there proved no way to bring back Anthony Hopkins as Zorro's mentor.
"We absolutely did consider it," he reveals, "and he'd always said he'd like to appear in any sequel. But then we realised you'd end up with perhaps just one scene and it felt like it was a cheap trick exploiting the first film, so we never contacted him."
Of course, while busy promoting Zorro, Campbell has other more pressing matters on his mind regarding another rather longer running franchise.
Having reinvented the James Bond series with GoldenEye ten years ago he's been called on to repeat the trick with Casino Royale.
And yet again launch another new face for 007.
"Tomorrow Never Dies was a financial success but it had a tough time with the critics," he admits.
"And I think the Broccolis felt things had got to the point where the movies had gotten slightly beyond Bond with things like invisible cars and water skiing off icebergs. It all felt a bit too much, so this is much more along the lines of From Russia With Love.
"It has a different feel from the recent Bond movies and it's a lot closer to the book."
There has, of course, already been one Casino Royale adaptation, a non Broccoli debacle played as spoof comedy with, among others, David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers and even Ursula Andress as 007.
Campbell's version, you'll be happy to hear, is rather more faithful to Ian Fleming's 1953 debut novel in which a Bond, fresh from winning his 007 stripes, is sent to play a game of high stakes poker against Smersh bagman Le Chiffre.
"It was set during the Cold War so obviously that's been changed because it's not going to be a period piece," Campbell continues.
"But the principal of the book remains intact and the last two thirds is pretty much what's in the script."
Whether this includes the novel's shocking torture scene, Campbell's not saying but while admitting that origin stories are fertile ground in the wake of Batman Begins the casting of Daniel Craig now makes it unlikely that Bond's going to be the late twentyish agent fresh out of spy school he'd once been quoted as envisaging.
While unable to give much away, Campbell has been looking to correct various rumour mill reports. Bollywood star Gulshan Grover is apparently not playing Le Chiffre, Sienna Miller won't be Bond girl Vesper Lynd and, while the franchise will be getting back to basics with a darker edge and more character depth, there will be the trademark gadgets.
The rest, including the likely return of Judi Dench as M, will have to remain to be seen. Meanwhile, there's the question of whether the Zorro team are likely to be back for a third go round.
"The studio may push for it but they have to look ahead," says Campbell circumspectly.
"Spielberg wants to do another Raiders but Harrison Ford is 63, so that'll be interesting. Antonio is 45 now and making this film really hurt him. He walked away like a cripple at the end of the movie. Things go wrong, knuckles get skinned, his back was hurting, and he put his shoulder out. So maybe we won't.
"But then Isabelle Allende has written a fascinating novel about the origins of Zorro. It's a class act and very different from the two films because it covers where Zorro was born, how he went to Spain and his first love, and it reintroduces Sgt Garcia and best friend Bernardo from the TV series. So who knows, perhaps that might be the way to go."
