All You Need is Kill, Live.Die.Repeat, Edge of Tomorrow – however you choose to identify Doug Liman’s brainy sci-fi, the 2014 actioner proved to be a pleasant surprise when it stormed into theaters two years ago. Featuring two cracking performances from Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, a mixture of clever writing and the movie’s time travel mechanic ensured that Liman and Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller found an audience to call its own.
And though it’s taken some time to find its feet – no thanks to the fine line between production budget and box office returns – an Edge of Tomorrow 2 is officially on the way. Writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Race, Frankie & Alice) have been elected to pen the sequel’s screenplay, and though he stopped short of revealing too much, Liman told IGN that the action follow-up will “revolutionize” how the industry approaches sequels.
When asked about the status of Edge of Tomorrow 2, the writer-director confirmed that development is indeed underway thanks to the appointment of Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, before teasing, “it’s going to revolutionize how people make sequels. It really will.”
That’s quite the bullish statement. Sequels have always been a case of balancing the old with the new – it’s repeating yourself without necessarily repeating yourself, as The Incredibles director Brad Bird so aptly put – but the fact that Liman believes Edge of Tomorrow 2 will “revolutionize” the practice of expanding a story leads us to believe that there’s more to this than meets the eye. Could it be that Doug Liman was inspired by his involvement in VR series Invisible? Time will tell.
Edge of Tomorrow 2 is being prepped to enter production late next year.
