For over 25 years now, Face/Off has been cemented as one of the best action movies, but for most of that time, it was a one-and-done story, like so many entries in the genre. Then in 2019, Paramount Pictures announced that another Face/Off movie was in the works, and then in 2021, it was clarified that this would be a sequel rather than a remake. Now Nicolas Cage, who co-starred with John Travolta in the original Face/Off, has described the plot of Face/Off 2, and what we’ll be getting sounds wild.
When we last heard from Nicolas Cage about Face/Off 2, he sounded hopeful about the sequel’s chances of moving forward. Cut to the start of 2023, while plugging his new movie The Old Way with Collider, Cage shared that his initial discussions about this continuation involved hearing about a story that not only saw him and John Travolta reprising their respective roles of Castor Troy and Sean Archer, but also these characters’ children being thrown into the mix. In Cage’s words:
I think Face/Off is a sequel that lends itself to a lot of twists and turns and unpredictability. It's almost like if you factor in the idea of offspring and Castor and Sean having children and these children grow up, then it becomes like three-dimensional chess, and then it's not just the two, John Travolta and myself, it's four of us ping-ponging and going at different levels, and it becomes even more complex. I think there's a lot of fertile ground there. I had maybe one meeting in an office, but I haven't heard anything since, so I don't know.
With two and a half decades having passed since Face/Off, both Castor Troy and Sean Archer’s children would be well into adulthood, so it makes sense that they would be drawn into this next round of craziness. However, am I Nicolas Cage’s mention of the four of them “ping-ponging” that suggests that the children might be switching faces too. So this would be a sequel where we’d literally be getting double of what made the original Face/Off such a wild ride. While it’s a shame Cage hasn’t heard anything new about where things stand with Face/Off 2, he’s clearly interested in the prospect of revisiting this world.
Of course, let’s not forget that Nicolas Cage being involved at all in Face/Off 2 would be weird considering that, SPOILER ALERT, Sean Archer killed Castor Troy in Face/Off with a spear gun. So will the sequel come up with some bonkers way to explain how Castor didn’t die, or will something like resurrection or cloning be put on the table? That remains to be seen, although Adam Wingard, who’s directing Face/Off 2, has previously said that fans should look at the scene at the end of the original movie where Castor is seen in an ambulance and a medic has applied a bandage to his wound for a clue regarding how Castor is back in the picture.
During this same interview, Nicolas Cage praised Adam Wingard, saying that he “liked everything” the filmmaker did with 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong and described him as “smart.” Along with his directorial duties, Wingard co-wrote the Face/Off 2 script with his Blair Witch collaborator Simon Barrett. Wingard is aiming for the sequel to be rated R just like its predecessor, and he’s acknowledged that his work on Godzilla vs. Kong will help make Face/Off 2 more of an “epic movie,” although this will be “much more of a family story.”
We’ll pass along more notable updates on Face/Off 2 once they come in, but for now, get acquainted with the 2023 movie releases that are slotted on the calendar. This includes The Old Way now playing in theaters, and Renfield, which sees Nicolas Cage playing Dracula, opens on April 7.
