2013’s Brad Pitt-fronted World War Z was the highest grossing zombie movie of all time, a fact I was not aware of 30 seconds prior to writing this sentence. Romping home with a handy $540 million gross, one would assume a sequel was in short order. As it turns out though, not exactly.
Director after director signed on for World War Z 2, only for various colours of conflicting arrangements to see them jump ship. Paramount finally pulled the plug on the film in February of last year, leaving it firmly in development hell. And if you think that leaves things looking hopeless for another round of Brad-fuelled zombie action, you’d be mostly right. But there is one glimmer of hope.
World War Z producer Jeremy Kleiner has taken part in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter and the topic of a sequel came up. Specifically, Kleiner and fellow producer Dede Garner were asked whether Z 2 will ever come to pass, with the former responding:
Someday. We love Max Brooks’ book. We love the universe of it. It doesn’t feel like the World War Z is done and over with.
Not quite completely dead, nor quite alive – undead, if you will. Perhaps there’s enough energy there to reanimate it. That’s all my zombie jokes exhausted, no point in flogging a dead corpse. Which, now that I think about it, might be the first We Got This Covered produced tautology. Or at least, the first deliberate one. Where was I?
Undead sequels, yes, that’ll do. If World War Z 2 does ever make it to screens, god knows what it’ll look like. My bets would be on a sequel, as Kleiner said, happening someday, but that day won’t arrive for some time yet. Would Brad Pitt return to star? Would Marc Foster return to direct? Will the Chinese Government lift their ban on abetting zombie movies (that’s a real thing)? The answer to all these hypotheticals is, as my pieces always seem to end, completely unknown. See you in 2033 for Z2: Electric Boogaloo.
