2013’s World War Z might’ve been a commercial success, but it had an awfully rough ride along the way, with its lengthy production consisting of extensive reshoots and many, many script re-writes. Even so, that’s nothing compared to its sequel, World War Z 2, which has been in development for about four or five years now and in that time, hasn’t made a whole lot of progress.
If you’ll recall, Paramount originally wanted to bring it into theaters on June 9th, 2017 but that (and then director J.A. Bayona) came and went. Shortly after, David Fincher signed on to direct and the film hit the brakes even harder as he chose to prioritize his (excellent) Netflix series Mindhunter.
Now, in news that shouldn’t be too surprising but is still quite upsetting, we’re hearing that the studio has finally pulled the plug on the project. Apparently, the sequel’s budget was part of the issue, but there were other problems behind the scenes as well which contributed to the decision. On top of all that, it’s said that Brad Pitt isn’t too pleased with Paramount right now, as he held out for years to make World War Z 2 while he waited for Fincher’s schedule to clear up and for the studio to officially give the project the green light.
Again, the writing was kind of on the wall here, so this isn’t terribly surprising, but it is a shame. Many fans were excited to not only see Fincher teaming up with Pitt again but also to see the director apply his rigorous style to genre horror. It also would’ve been the first time he’s done a sequel since his infamous experience helming Alien 3 for Fox.
But it seems that it just wasn’t meant to be, as according to The Playlist, who broke the news, Paramount “simply dragged their heels” and were “never bold enough to put it back on the schedule” after it missed its previous release dates. It’s a big blow, to be sure, but maybe one day down the road, World War Z 2 will be brought off the shelf and resurrected. If that happens, though, we just wouldn’t expect to see Fincher behind the camera, and maybe not even Pitt in front of it.
