Excitement is building for Adam Wingard’s Face/Off 2, with the Godzilla vs. Kong director promising an epic experience. Rather than rebooting the premise, the pic is planned as a direct sequel to John Woo’s 1997 original, and Wingard has recently expressed an interest in bringing back Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, at least in some form.
The filmmaker has now dropped further strong hints about this casting move, and has encouraged people to “read between the lines.” More specifically, this is what Wingard had to say:
“You know, I’m scared to say yes or no to that because we haven’t gotten into that phase of it yet, that I don’t want to scare anybody off. But again, I will kind of reiterate that this is a definitive sequel to Face/Off, and I wouldn’t do the movie if, at any point, it felt like the film wasn’t going to be a real, definitive sequel. I know that’s not a cool answer, but read between the lines there, you know?”
Both Travolta and Cage have reportedly been in talks to reprise their roles in Face/Off 2, which may be difficult if you remember how the first movie ended, but doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. Of course, the two actors have pretty prolific careers, and it probably wouldn’t take much to lure them into a deal for appearing in a continuation of one of their most well-known projects.
Things are at a very early stage, though, with Wingard working with Simon Barrett on a screenplay during lockdown, having previously collaborated with him on You’re Next and The Guest. With Godzilla vs. Kong already touted as representing something special, the 38-year-old director could find his reputation enhanced after the mixed response to Blair Witch and Death Note.
In terms of adding new faces to the cast, there are plenty of stars that the internet would be keen to see swap identities, including Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and Robert Pattinson and Tom Hardy. At any rate, Face/Off 2 seems to going in a different direction than the reboot that was floating around in 2019, which was attached to screenwriter Oren Uziel. Based on Wingard’s latest remarks, then, the next big announcement for the production is likely to be about Cage and Travolta, even if it just ends up being confirmation that they’ll be providing cameos to better tie together the story with the 1990s hit.
