One of the more underrated entries in Will Smith’s rise to the top of Hollywood’s A-list during the 1990s, Enemy of the State was a typically stylish Tony Scott thriller about government corruption and the abuse of surveillance technology. The combination of Smith, Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer at the height of his powers saw the movie become a huge hit, going on to earn over $250 million at the box office.
The themes and ideas found in the plot were timely back then, and are much more relevant now in the modern era, with the use of facial recognition and surveillance technology in everyday life a source of constant debate on an almost daily basis. It seems as though someone in Hollywood has realized this, too, because sources close to We Got This Covered, the same ones who told us Deadpool 3 was in development months before Ryan Reynolds confirmed it, and that a new movie in the Scream franchise was in the works, which we now know to be true, say that a sequel to Enemy of the State is being cooked up and that the studio want Will Smith to return.
Apparently, the plan would be for Smith to reprise his role as Robert Clayton Dean, who after unraveling the conspiracy at the center of the first movie now works for the government and is sent to track down a young man accused of committing a cyber-crime. Of course, the man turns out to be innocent and Smith’s character ends up helping him clear his name, presumably as they try to evade the shadowy forces sent after them by the government in a desperate race against time.
While that all sounds a little too familiar to the plot of the first Enemy of the State, with Smith simply replacing the legendary Gene Hackman in the ‘grizzled and cynical veteran’ role, advances in technology over the last two decades would at least allow for some fresh takes on the formula. Plus, we’ve heard that while the basic plot structure is similar to the first film, it’ll be more modernized and include a few new twists.
Furthermore, our sources also claim that the studio are eyeing Michael B. Jordan or Michael B. Jordan-type actors for the other lead role, and there’s little doubt that seeing the Black Panther star team up with Will Smith on the big screen would guarantee an audience for the movie.
Of course, the project is still only in the earliest stages of development at the moment and things haven’t really kicked into gear yet, but it’s said that the studio definitely wants to do a follow-up to Enemy of the State and given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who also told us Bill Murray would be back for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, we’ve no reason to doubt it.
