Summary
2013’sWorld War Z, based on the book of the same name, intended to revolutionize the Zombie movie genre but failed in doing so. While theWorld War Zbook is a favorite among Zombie enthusiasts, the live-action adaptation of the movie was a bit underwhelming to the franchise’s fans mainly because it ditched the horror elements that made the book successful in the first place.
Coupled with the poor CGI Zombies in the film and an underwhelming third act of the movie,World War Zfailed to live up to its hype by going towards the typical Hollywood action movie type. Nevertheless,World War Zwas still a decent zombie movie with solid performances, but it could’ve been way better. Could aWorld War Z 2truly redeem the shortcomings of the original movie?
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What Happens In World War Z?
World War Zfollows the main protagonist Gerry Lane, a former UN investigator played by Brad Pitt, when he gets stuck in traffic with his family in Philadelphia. While initially, the traffic appears to be regular, radio reports that a rabies infection has spread, turning humans into flesh-eating zombies. This is soon followed by explosions and heavy traffic colliding with each other. Gerry barely escapes the disaster and takes his family to safety at Freeport, Nova Scotia. However, Gerry is forced out of retirement after being given a choice; either to help a team transport a doctor to find the origin of the Zombie outbreak, or his family will be removed from the safe zone. Being forced to keep his family safe, Gerry heads toward South Korea with a team to find the origins of the Zombie virus.
WhiletheWorld War Zmovie was met well for most parts, viewers found the third act quite disappointing. The film’s ending was changed immensely from the original screenplay to make the movie more family-friendly, as the originalending was quite dark. TheWorld War Zmovie was also so different from the book as it took a cinematic approach to the movie instead of the narrative and emotional approach in the books, but that was understandable considering the book’s nature could never be translated well to a movie.
What could World War Z 2 look like?
The originalWorld War Zbook involved interviews with survivors from different countries interconnected through their stories, soWorld War Z 2would likely follow Gerry’s continuing journey from the first book.World War Z 2was in production once before getting paused and would have reunited director David Fincher and Brad Pitt again in a movie after their work inSe7en, Fight Club, andThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button.According to a leaked synopsis, which readers should take with a grain of salt,World War Z 2was poised to center around Gerry as the protagonist again, leading humanity’s resistance against the relentless zombie threat.
The story would have revealed that the initial vaccine, which held promise in protecting against the zombie infection, proved effective for only a brief 36-hour window before rendering individualsvulnerable to zombie attacks. This setback would have triggered political tension between countries, with everyone fighting against each other to secure the remaining resources.
However, Humanity’s hope would have reignited again by producing a new virus called E29. This virus was specially designed to pit the zombies against one another. However, the virologist responsible for E29 disappears mysteriously, leaving crucial unfinished details required to mass-produce the virus.
In a race against time, Gerry would embark on a journey worldwide to locate Dr. Morel, the missing virologist. The stakes would be higher than ever, with the fate of Humanity hanging in the balance with time tickingbefore Zombies overtake Humanity.
How could World War Z 2 Improve Upon Its Predecessor?
With the lesson learned from the firstWorld War Zmovie,World War Z 2would need to take a different approach and delve deeper into the horror genre instead of being a typical Hollywood action movie. The movie was R-rated in production before getting paused, so it would be no surprise ifWorld War Z 2had a darker tone. Moreover, the film could adhere to its source material and learn from the first movie’s mistakes. The best way thatWorld War Z’s sequel could be adapted is through a TV series, which is the best medium to translate the book correctly as the movie will need more length toinclude all plot points.
Will There Ever Be A World War Z 2
World War Z 2was in development at a time with a readied script and was given an initial release date of 2017 with David Fincher as the director but got delayed to 2019 due to Brad Pitt’s busy schedule shooting forOnce Upon A Time In HollywoodandAd Astra. Fast forward to 2019, when Brad’s schedule freed up, but this time, director David Fincher got busy with the second season ofMindhunter, after which there was no time to shootWorld War Z 2, and it seemed as if all odds were against the movie’s release.
Paramount was also skeptical about the potential earnings from World War Z 2 after the profit they got forWorld War Z. Despite having a box office of $540 Million,World War Zturned a low profit for Paramountconsidering the high $200 Million budgetfor the film. This added concern was fueled more by China, one of the world’s largest countries and a significant movie market,banned films featuring ghosts and zombies. This exclusion from such a substantial market could reduce profits for Paramount. This factor also played a significant role in halting the movie’s production.
Soon after the movie’s production halt in 2019, the pandemic suddenly struck the world, seemingly causing Paramount to forget about the film. Even the producer, Marc Forster, stepped back from the sequel, stating that it wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
The possibility ofWorld War Z 2still lingers, although it still needs to be completely ruled out. It all comes down to Paramount for them to find another director forWorld War Z 2that can work within the constrained budgets the studio wants.
