By 2020, we’ve seen just about every permutation of the living dead – Nazi zombies, infected crazies and of course, the rom-zom-com. Here’s looking at you, Shaun of the Dead.
But that’s not to say the sub-genre of zombie films is completely exhausted; if anything, carefully crafted movies in the vein of Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016) prove that there is still, in fact, plenty of room for innovation.
Sang-ho’s modern masterpiece is a genuine thrill ride from start to finish, and it didn’t come as much of a surprise when the Powers That Be announced plans to push forward with a sequel – a sequel we now know to be titled Penisula. There’s just one problem: Penisula isn’t really a sequel at all.
That’s according to Yeon Sang-ho himself, who spoke to Screen Daily shortly after he wrapped production on Train to Busan: Penisula and said:
Peninsula is not a sequel to Train To Busan because it’s not a continuation of the story, but it happens in the same universe.
Starring Gang Dong-won (1987: When The Day Comes) along with Lee Jung-hyun (The Battleship Island), Train to Busan: Penisula will seemingly take place four years after the zombie outbreak. Not only that, but with a budget in the region of $8M – twice that of its predecessor – Penisula will be much larger in scope, as Jung-seok, a “former soldier who has managed to escape overseas, is given a mission to go back and unexpectedly meets up with survivors.”
Distributors in the U.S. have been quick to snap up Train to Busan: Penisula, and while no official release date has been set, we understand Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie follow-up is aiming to hit select theaters in the summer of 2020. It shouldn’t be too much longer, then, before we’re back in the thick of Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie apocalypse. And, frankly, we’re counting down the days.
