MOVIE NEWS – Almost ten years after its premiere, fans are still waiting for World War Z 2. But will the Brad Pitt blockbuster return any time soon?

It’s been almost a decade since the action-horror blockbuster World War Z hit cinemas. A sequel was confirmed shortly after its release, but fans of the film are still waiting for Gerry Lane (played by Brad Pitt) to return to the big screen.

World War Z 2 is currently on a very bumpy road, like many other films stuck in pre-production hell. Fans are still hopeful that it will get made. Unfortunately, for several reasons, it looks like WW Z 2 will definitely not be finished for a while. But what are those reasons?

Brad Pitt’s World War Z 2 has been cancelled?!

In February 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Studios has cancelled the sequel to the 2013 hit film WW Z. Brad Pitt’s World War Z has been cancelled. The original film grossed a staggering $540 million against a budget of $190 million. Everyone was rightly waiting for the sequel to hit theatres. However, WW Z 2, announced shortly after its release, was eventually cancelled.

Director Marc Forster and Paramount originally intended WW Z to be a trilogy. After the film’s success in 2013, director J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) was hired to direct. The script was to be written by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). World War Z 2 is scheduled for release on June 9, 2017.

But in 2016, Bayona pulled out of the project due to other projects he was involved with.

Before the final cancellation, producer Dede Gardner confirmed that filming for the sequel would begin in 2018. But as we know, that never happened. Another reason for the Paramount studio to cancel the production was Pitt’s busy schedule. With no news on the sequel, the in-demand actor signed on to other projects such as Ad Astra and Once Upon a… Hollywood. This further delayed the filming of WW Z 2.

In addition, the Chinese ban on zombie and ghost films was a cause for concern for the production team. China is a crucial market for Hollywood. It was uncertain whether WW Z 2 would be a commercial success. Unlike the first film, the sequel would have required a bigger production. But this time, Paramount could not estimate how big a box-office hit they could expect, as Chinese audiences were left out of the frame.

Could World War Z 2 still have a future?

At the time of writing, it seems that WW Z 2 will not happen anytime soon. Speaking to The Digital Fix, Marc Forster has left fans disappointed about the next instalment. He said, “In regard to World War Z 2 – I don’t think that sequel is coming anytime soon.” It seems that for now, fans of horror films are out of luck, as both Paramount and Forster have backed out of the sequel.

However, the existence of the script and all the work that has been put in so far keeps the possibility alive that an enterprising director could dust off the project. Perhaps without Pitt, or even in the form of a reboot. However, if not shortly, we could easily see a World War Z movie later.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, The Digital Fix