Of all the movies that Paramount Pictures announced during their presentation at this year’s CinemaCon, one of the most unexpected reveals was that a new World War Z film was on the way. It’s not entirely surprising that a horror movie that earned $540 million worldwide would be getting a new entry, but rather it was surprising that, after so many starts and stops over the years, a sequel seems to actually be taking shape. The presentation, though, failed to offer any insight into what this upcoming chapter would explore or what figures from the original film could return.
The first World War Z focused on Gerry (Brad Pitt), a former United Nations investigator who gets separated from his family as a zombie outbreak begins. He spends the rest of the movie traversing the globe in hopes of reuniting with his family, which includes his wife Karin, who was played by Mireille Enos. It’s unknown if Pitt is expected to reprise his role, and Enos herself recently admitted that she doesn’t even know if she’ll be returning.
When speaking with Screen Rant about a possible return, Enos admitted:
“There have been different versions, hopeful versions over these past 15 years. So we’ll see. The past conversations about a second World War Z did include my character, but I have no official information at this time.”
The actor did say that they “hope” to be involved in the next chapter and that it “would be incredible” to come back for the sequel, so even if she’s unaware of plans for the sequel, she sounds intrigued by the notion.
World War Z is based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks, which was a collection of stories about different parts of the world all reacting to a zombie virus at different points in the wake of the first outbreak. The movie was a bit different in this sense, as it focused primarily on one character, though the structure of the narrative allowed Gerry to experience a variety of zombie encounters around the globe. Based on that fragmented storytelling, we wouldn’t be surprised if the next movie delivers an approach like the 28 Days Later franchise, which largely jumped from one batch of characters to the next as that timeline progressed.
Another component that might keep Enos out of the picture, however, is that, while Paramount Pictures confirmed another entry was on the way, they didn’t share whether it would be a continuation of the original movie or if it would merely be another story set in this world, potentially taking place parallel to the first installment. As Enos mentioned, there have been multiple iterations of a sequel over the years, which included plans to have David Fincher reunite with Pitt for a sequel. That attempt was just one of the many abandoned follow-ups from the past decade.
Anyone who has been following the franchise will recognize how familiar the current situation sounds; the first movie was announced in 2007, but it took multiple scripts and various reshoots to get the movie into theaters. Even though the movie was a hit, it had a reported production budget of $270 million, so it would seem that Paramount wouldn’t want to start filming until they were much more certain about the next movie’s trajectory.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
