A killer doll returns, RoboCop hits the streets,
and an interstellar alien war rages on. Several long-awaited sci-fi sequels are
finally blasting off. Here's when you can expect them to hit theaters.
Directed by Steven Caple Jr.,
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" will bring back the
popular Autobots while introducing several new-to-the-films "Beast Wars" characters.
Caple will be working from a script written by Joby Harold, who was also responsible for
the screenplay for "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and wrote for Disney+'s
"Obi-Wan Kenobi" series. "Transformers 7" will star "Hamilton" actor Anthony Ramos,
alongside actor Dominique Fishback. Plus, Michelle Yeoh will voice Maximal Airazor,
Peter Dinklage will play the villainous Scourge, and Pete Davidson will play Autobot Mirage,
replacing the late Francesco Quinn. The movie will take place in the 1990s,
as the Autobots and Maximals do battle with the Decepticons, Predacons, and Terrorcons.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is set to hit theaters June 9th, 2023.
Within days of the release of "Dune," a sequel was officially greenlit, with a release date set for
November 3, 2023. "Dune: Part Two" won't come as a shock to anyone who read Frank Herbert's novel
or saw the first film, which ended at what seemed to be a pretty pivotal point in the character arc
of protagonist Paul Atreides. "Dune" began a sprawling tale of feuding households,
political maneuvering, religious intrigue, and resource mining on the desert planet of Arrakis.
Of course, not all the central players in "Dune" survived until the end,
but those that did are expected to reprise their roles in the sequel.
Also returning are director Denis Villeneuve and composer Hans Zimmer. As for Villeneuve,
the director clarified that he considers "Dune: Part Two" the same movie as "Dune"
rather than a traditional sequel, telling "The Hollywood Reporter,"
"It's not a sequel where it's another episode or
another story with the same characters. It actually has direct continuity to the
first movie. It's the second part of the big, huge movie that I'm trying to do."
Joining the cast for "Dune 2" are Florence Pugh, who will play Princess
Irulan Corrino and Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam IV. Austin Butler
will portray the villainous Feyd-Rautha, Léa Seydoux will join the cast as Lady Margot,
and Tim Blake Nelson is portraying an unknown character. Interestingly,
unlike the first film, "Dune: Part Two" will receive an exclusive 45-day theatrical window,
rather than the simultaneous theatrical and streaming release that the first film got.
"Come with me."
While the nearly silent "A Quiet Place" stays entirely focused on one small family headed by
parents played by Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, the sequel, "A Quiet Place Part II" zooms out.
That film brings the surviving characters from the first film into contact with a small,
peaceful community that has managed to stay isolated from the sound-seeking
monstrosities prowling the world around them. Now a third "A Quiet Place" film is
on the docket. But Paramount is positioning it as a spin-off, according to "Deadline."
Writer-director Michael Sarnoski will oversee "A Quiet Place:
Day One." Word has it that Blunt and Krasinski won't appear here. Instead, the leads will be
played by Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn. Nyong'o posted a cast photo to Instagram in March 2023,
revealing that Djimon Hounsou would return to the "Quiet Place" universe,
likely reprising his role as "Man on Island" from "A Quiet Place: Part II."
"I have to get back to my family."
"A Quiet Place: Day One" will be released on March 8th, 2024.
Everybody's favorite
Titans — Godzilla and King Kong — have begun training for their anticipated
rematch. The first film hit theaters and HBO Max in 2021, earning $468 million at
the box office and impressing a fair amount of critics. The man in charge of the film,
Adam Wingard, will be returning to direct, and this time, he's teaming up with an old friend.
"Deadline" reports that Dan Stevens will be playing the lead character. Stevens and Wingard
previously worked together on the horror cult classic "The Guest." If you haven't seen that
'80s-inspired flick, you probably know Stevens from projects like "Downton Abbey," "Beauty
and the Beast," and "Legion." He'll be joined by MonsterVerse veterans Rebecca Hall, Brian
Tyree Henry, and Kaylee Hottle, along with fellow newcomers Rachel House, Fala Chen, and Alex Ferns.
The script is being written by longtime Wingard collaborator Simon Barrett, as well as Jeremy
Slater and Terry Rossio. But what's the plot? We have a vague idea based on the official plot
description, which states that Kong and Godzilla will be pitted against an undiscovered threat.
So who or what is the undiscovered threat? Whatever ends up happening,
we're excited for the showdown.
Warner Bros.recently announced that the movie's name is Godzilla x Kong:
The New Empire, and will arrive in theaters on March 15, 2024.
Following three successful films in the rebooted "Planet of the Apes" franchise, a fourth is on
the way from director Wes Ball. The three films seemed to reach their natural end with 2017's "War
for the Planet of the Apes," but now, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" looms on the horizon,
with Ball saying on Twitter in 2020 that the fourth film would continue the legacy of Caesar.
Of course, Caesar — the leader of the apes in the first three films — died in "War," so where
will the fourth film go from here? According to "The Hollywood Reporter," "Kingdom" will
take place years after Caesar's death, with apes running the show and humans as the lower class.
While some apes are trying to live a peaceful existence, others are trying to build empires,
enslaving their fellow primates and hunting for game-changing human
tech. The story will follow an ape who stands up to his bloodthirsty brethren,
as well as a human woman who will help our furry hero while advancing her own goals.
As for the cast, Owen Teague has been cast as the lead ape,
and he'll be joined by co-stars Freya Allen, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy.
The script will be written by Patrick Aison, Josh Friedman, and Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa.
Talking to FilmSpeak, the latter two elaborated a bit on the themes of the upcoming movie, saying,
"Caesar created something and left a legacy. So then the questions are:
What happens with that? What becomes of his legacy?"
"I did not start this war."
"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" is scheduled for a May 24th,
2024 release.
An allegory about environmentalism and imperialism, "Avatar" was a visually
stunning experience. Set in the distant future on the idyllic planet of Pandora, the film
saw an Earth-based contingent seeking a rare substance and interacting with the indigenous,
blue-skinned Na'vi. In the middle of all this, paralyzed former Marine Jake Sully
fully embraced the Na'vi culture by way of his mental link-up — or rather, his avatar.
From 2009 to 2010, "Avatar" became a worldwide pop culture sensation and
the highest-grossing movie ever made. Writer-director James Cameron announced
weeks after the first film hit theaters that he was working on a sequel, and later,
Cameron promised a third "Avatar." By 2015, those plans had ballooned into a five-film series.
Of course, such complicated movies take a lot of money and time to realize, and the aquatics-heavy
"Avatar: The Way of Water" hit theaters 13 years after the original. But audiences packed theaters
as they had for the first film — to the tune of $1.9 billion in ticket sales. In the wake
of the first sequel's success, Cameron has dropped some details about "Avatar 3," telling "Deadline,"
"Fire has a symbolic purpose in the film, and there's a culture that is specifically around
that concept. [...] You're going to meet two completely new cultures in the next film."
Evidently, this fire nation will be a bit different from your normal Na'vi.
Led by Oona Chaplin, the so-called "Ash People"
will actually be a villainous bunch, with Cameron telling "20 Minutes,"
"I want to reveal the Na'vi from another angle because [so far] I have only shown
their good sides. In the early films, there are very negative human examples
and very positive Na'vi examples. In 'Avatar 3,' we'll do the reverse."
"Why did you come to us?"
"Came to learn."
According to "Collider," the third "Avatar" opens on December 20th, 2024.
Killer dolls amass devoted cult audiences by combining innocent childhood playthings with
evil, murder, mayhem, and usually a little comedy. Following in the steps of "Chucky,"
"Annabelle," and "The Boy" comes "M3GAN," a high-tech take on the formula. In this film,
a toy company's roboticist creates M3GAN, an eerily life-like doll with sophisticated
artificial intelligence on board. She's able to learn and adapt to make life better for
the child she's imprinted upon — in this case, the roboticist's niece. Naturally,
things go awry, and M3GAN becomes violently overprotective of her young charge.
According to "Deadline," "M3GAN" earned $30 million its January 2023 opening weekend,
far exceeding industry prognostications. Just days later, Universal took the early steps to
bring a sequel to the big screen. According to "The Hollywood Reporter," Allison Williams and
Violet McGraw are returning for the sequel, as is Akela Cooper, who penned the original
script. According to the trade, it's unknown if original director Gerard Johnstone is returning,
but we do know that James Wan, Jason Blum, and Williams herself
will be producing. Expect "M3GAN 2.0" to arrive in theaters on January 17th, 2025.
Before John Boyega was known for fighting intergalactic space battles in "Star Wars,"
he was fighting unsettling monstrous aliens in the urban sci-fi adventure
"Attack the Block." Written and directed by Joe Cornish, the 2011 film starred Boyega as Moses,
the leader of a teenage street gang in South London — a gang that decides to rid their
neighborhood of vicious extraterrestrials after they unexpectedly start falling from the sky.
"I'm chasing it down. I'm killing it."
The sequel will reunite Boyega and Cornish,
who's once again both writing and directing. This time, Boyega will also be acting as co-producer,
in addition to reprising his role as Moses. Speaking to "Deadline," Boyega said,
"It's been a decade since 'Attack the Block' was released, and so much has changed since
then. I'm excited to see this heightened story return to the streets of London.
Moses has remained one of my favorite characters to play and bringing him back is a huge honor."
According to "Deadline," the "Attack the Block" sequel will find Moses
nearing the age of 30 and reflecting on a London changed by real-life events,
like the riots of 2011 and rampant gentrification. Boyega went on,
"We go back and look at the locations where we shot the first movie — once
dodgy areas — and we find that it's all gleaming,
high-end apartments and Starbucks. There's a whole world that we're about to explore
here with a whole new take on that universe, building and revisiting those characters."
Every few years, another "Cloverfield" movie comes along. "Cloverfield" sequels have
historically been developed under codenames, and aren't revealed to be part of the popular
franchise until their trailers hit the big and small screens — or, in the case of 2018's "The
Cloverfield Paradox," just before the film hit Netflix on Super Bowl Sunday. All three
"Cloverfield" movies are dramatically different from one another: 2008's "Cloverfield" is a
found-footage horror movie about a stampeding monster, 2016's "10 Cloverfield Lane" takes
place almost entirely in a bunker, and "The Cloverfield Paradox" is a space thriller.
Considering this history of secrecy, it's likely nobody will know what the fourth
"Cloverfield" movie is really about until just before it's released, which will be
some time in the next few years. According to "The Hollywood Reporter," franchise producer
J.J. Abrams hired writer Joe Barton to write the screenplay in January 2021. In September 2022,
Babak Anvari landed the director's job, following his well-received work
on thoughtful and unsettling fare including "Under the Shadow" and "I Came By." Almost
everything else about the movie, in true "Cloverfield" fashion, remains a mystery.
Adapted from the book by Richard Matheson, the 2007 film "I Am Legend" starred Will
Smith as Robert Neville, the seemingly sole human survivor of an apocalyptic plague that transformed
most of the world's humans into a terrifying cross between zombies and vampires. However,
Neville eventually encounters another pair of survivors, a woman and a young boy who are both
also immune to the virus. The ending of the film didn't leave a lot of room for Smith to return for
a sequel since it saw Neville sacrificing himself in order to save the other two,
but an alternate ending found all three heading to a survivors' camp in possession of a cure.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm listening."
According to the original film's writer Akiva Goldsman, the sequel,
announced by "Deadline" in 2022 — would follow that other ending. Goldsman told "Deadline,"
"This will start a few decades later than the first. We trace
back to the original Matheson book, and the alternate ending. What Matheson was
talking about was that man's time on the planet as the dominant species had come
to an end. That's a really interesting thing we're going to get to explore."
Michael B. Jordan is set to headline "I Am Legend 2," along with Smith. However, not long
after "I Am Legend 2" was announced, Smith made headlines for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars,
putting the fate of several of his future projects in jeopardy. Since the release would
likely come several years after the incident, it's possible that "I Am Legend 2" will still
go ahead with Smith attached.
Despite the better part of four decades having passed since "The Last Starfighter" first wowed
audiences, the time may actually be ideal for a sequel. The film was about a teenager who
beats a video game, only to discover that the game was really a recruiting tool in order to
find soldiers to fight in an interstellar alien war. Video games have changed a lot since then,
which could present a natural way to continue the story. Speaking to
"Moviehole," Jonathan Betuel, the writer of the original film, said of the sequel,
"It's not a remake. It's going to continue the story. What's changed is time itself, certainly
as the video world and the alien world have continued to tick away. It's not a time capsule of
the '80s by any means, we're taking it to the next level. Passing the torch [...] or the joystick."
"900,000! You gonna bust the record!"
Betuel will be co-writing the sequel, titled "The Last Starfighters," with screenwriter
Gary Whitta. In March 2021, Whitta tweeted a sizzle reel that hints at the plot of the film:
an alien attempts to assassinate an adult Alex, the protagonist of the first film,
and Alex heads off into space to get to the bottom of what's going on. According to Betuel,
the road to making a sequel has been a rocky one that's taken years, but at one point,
he was optimistic it would finally get off the ground. Betuel told "Moviehole" in 2020,
"Gary's a gifted collaborator, we'll be writing the script together,
but it's taken a long time. I had to go through a process that took years to recapture the rights,
but that was recently completed, and although nothing is ever clear sailing,
it looks like we have a really good opportunity now."
However, Gary Whitta isn't quite as optimistic. In September 2022,
a fan asked him on Twitter if there were any updates on the film. He tweeted in response,
"No. To be honest there's a decent chance it never happens. But if it doesn't,
it won't be for the lack of effort on my and Jon's part."
Your move, creeps. RoboCop is back. According to "Deadline," the cyborg star
is returning to the big screen, although it seems this new film is going to mess
around with the continuity. The original "RoboCop" was directed by Paul Verhoeven,
and it made quite a killing when it was released in 1987. After two sequel,
the franchise was rebooted in 2014, with actor Joel Kinnaman and director Jose Padilha.
The latest entry in the franchise will be called "RoboCop Returns" and will feature a fresh cast.
Though Neill Blomkamp was initially attached to direct, he announced in August 2019 that
scheduling conflicts had forced him to depart the project. In November 2019, Orion Pictures
announced that director Abe Forsythe had taken up the helm of "RoboCop Returns." The screenplay
for "RoboCop Returns" was originally penned in 1998 by Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner, the
same writers behind the first film, and it will receive a rewrite from Forsythe. Of Forsythe's
version of the script, Neumeier had nothing but good things to say, telling "Syfy Wire,"
"I didn't want to say too much [about what the script should be], I wanted him to have the
ideas and not worry about any other version of it, including ours, and just do his own thing.
It was very nice to be able to say that to someone like Abe with confidence. What he
came back with was really interesting, it felt relevant and really crackled."
Mere days after the 2021 Chris Pratt sci-fi action film "The Tomorrow War" dropped on Amazon Prime,
Amazon Studios and Skydance were already talking about a sequel.
The first film centered around Pratt's character, who's recruited as a soldier
to travel to the future and fight a war to save humanity. The sequel would reportedly
bring back the entire main cast, along with director Chris McKay and writer Zach Dean.
"Identify yourself."
"I'm— I'm Dan Forester."
"The Tomorrow War" earned an enthusiastic reaction from Amazon Prime subscribers,
who viewed it enough for it to debut as the number one film across streaming platforms
over the July 4th holiday weekend. So it's no wonder that the studios would
be eagerly circling a sequel, although no plans are confirmed yet. And while
we don't yet know what the story of a potential "The Tomorrow War 2" would be,
we have no doubt it will be just as thrilling and action-packed as the first film.
"Tron," released by Disney in 1982, represented a milestone — it was the first film featuring long
sequences rendered entirely with computers. Jeff Bridges played video game designer Kevin Flynn,
who gets trapped in one of his own projects and teams up with a software program as they traverse
a laser-lit digital world. The film earned a modest $33 million and became a cult classic,
so much so that Disney released "Tron: Legacy" in 2010, starring Garrett Hedlund as Flynn's son,
who enters the dangerous cyber dimension to retrieve his father.
"Tron: Legacy" performed well enough to prompt Disney to order a sequel, "Tron:
Ascension." "Tron: Legacy" director Joseph Kosinski had the entire film written and
storyboarded when Disney canceled the project in 2015, according to "Vulture." That third
"Tron" movie project lay dormant for seven years. According to "The Hollywood Reporter," Academy
Award winner Jared Leto stepped up to try to get "Tron 3" into production as far back as 2017,
and director Garth Davis signed on in 2020. Finally, in 2023, Disney agreed and green-lit
a new "Tron" movie, titled "Tron: Ares." A direct sequel to "Tron: Legacy," the
new film will star Leto. Joachim Rønning, a live-action Disney favorite, is set to direct.