When a movie does as well at the box office as Wanted did ($341 million on a $75 million budget), a sequel is usually assured, but it’s been a long six years since that action-thriller hit theaters, and the lack of news about Wanted 2 led many to believe that the project had been laid to rest. However, according to producer Marc Platt, the sequel is still very much in the works and has a screenplay that is already “far along.”
Platt’s comments came during an interview with Coming Soon, who met with him to discuss his upcoming Disney musical Into the Woods. When asked about Wanted 2, the producer explained:
“We have a script that’s getting pretty good. To do a sequel when it wasn’t really set up for a sequel–one of our main characters dies in it. You don’t want to just retread a similar story, but when we get the script to a certain bar, there will be a sequel. It’s taken a while because it’s challenging, as I said, because we lost a main, main character, so where that James McAvoy character goes now… we have good ideas though. It’s coming along.”
Platt is, of course, referring to the iconic exit of beautiful assassin Fox (Angelina Jolie), who sacrificed herself to ensure that a Fraternity of hired killers did not murder Wesley (James McAvoy) after he exposed the corrupt nature of their leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman). His recent comments make it clear that Jolie will not be resurrecting her character for the sequel, should it indeed come to pass.
Another big question mark about Wanted 2 is the involvement of Marc Millar, who wrote the limited comic-book series on which Wanted was based. Platt downplayed the idea of Millar writing a sequel series and said:
“He’s always going to be involved but he’s not going to write the screenplay which is far along, as I said, but he’s always going to be involved because the tone he puts forth is so much his tone and I think the film captured that dark humor of his really well.”
There you have it, folks. Still no solid word on whether McAvoy is returning, though Platt’s comments seem to suggest Wanted 2 would pick up with Wesley after the destruction of the Fraternity. We’ll keep you posted as more on the project emerges.
