Checking in with a paltry $48 million at the domestic box office, Legendary’s blockbuster adaptation of Warcraft struggled to have much of a presence during this year’s summer blockbuster season – and that’s despite the studio bumping Duncan Jones’ tentpole from its original March release date.
Alas, a strong performance in oversea markets – China in particular – will all but ensure that the feature doesn’t go down as an out-and-out flop, but we’d only be sugar-coating the situation if we didn’t say that Warcraft disappointed across the board.
That hasn’t quelled Jones’ interest in a direct sequel, though, after revealing in an interview with Thrillist that, should the opportunity of Warcraft 2 present itself, he would jump at that chance.
“If there were an opportunity for us to make another film in the Warcraft universe, I really feel like we did the hard work in the first movie as far as setting the table. I would love to capitalize on three-and-a-half years of hard work and be able to have some fun in that world now that I’ve done the hard work. [So] who knows? Maybe I’m just being a masochist.”
Bearing in mind that Legendary had tentatively mapped out plans for a bona fide trilogy, it’s not all too surprising that at the very least Jones remains open to the idea of a follow-up. Whether that blue-sky thinking pays off will be told in time.
Reflecting on Warcraft itself, the filmmaker also noted that fans needn’t expect a director’s cut to be included when the movie lands across Blu-ray and DVD on September 13.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘When is the director’s cut coming out?’ There will never be a director’s cut. With a film like this, where there are so many visual effects, every concession that you make you lose those shots. They cease to exist because the effects work never gets done. Some of it’s not even at that stage. You go through a writing stage right up to the deadline of shooting the thing. [You lose] ideas in the writing process. Then sets change for whatever reason and notes come in. You’re changing things around a three-and-a-half year process. You get these little changes which are constantly course correcting you. So there is no possibility of ever being a director’s cut. It’s purely in my head.”
If Duncan Jones does indeed circle back to the world of Azeroth for Warcraft 2, his planned return trip will take place after he fires up production on Mute.
