Got ‘Em! Flatliners Remake Is Actually A Sequel

File this one under “news nobody saw coming… because no one was exactly looking.” There’s been buzz since 2011 about a remake of the sci-fi cult hit Flatliners, but things became more solidified in recent months as a cast popped up around the project, including original star Kiefer Sutherland.

His involvement seemed to indicate that the remake might carry on from the events of the first pic – which would in fact make it a sequel (or at the very least a requel, if you hate yourself enough to engage in that level of Hollywood jargon) – but it wasn’t until earlier this week that Flatliners was unveiled as a full-on sequel.

During an interview with Metro, Sutherland couldn’t help but spoil his real role in the follow-up, saying:

“I play a professor at the medical university. It is never stated but it will probably be very clearly understood that I’m the same character I was in the original Flatliners but that I have changed my name and I’ve done some things to move on from the experiments that we were doing in the original film.”

Well that’s… not a remake at all. It sounds like the studio is interested in freshening up the look and feel of the film for modern audiences, which makes sense given how dated the original looks (I mean just look at that photo), but in terms of narrative this is a straight-up continuation of the first film’s story.

Sutherland seems pretty happy about this fact:

“I loved making the first film and when I was asked if I would be interested in taking part in this, it didn’t take more than a minute to say yes.”

Ellen Page, Diego Luna, Nina Dobrev, Beau Mirchoff, James Norton, and Kiersey Clemens all also have roles in the Flatliners sequel, which will be helmed by Niels Arden Oplev (the original and better The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, USA’s Mr. Robot). Ben Ripley (Source Code) penned the script.

That’s a talented crop of entertainers, so even this is, you know, a Flatliners sequel, it might be worth keeping an eye on as it approaches its August 18, 2017 release date.