Aside from George Clooney and Brad Pitt both technically being credited on the 2024 movie IF (in that Pitt’s invisible imaginary friend character never speaks, referencing his cameo as Vanisher in Deadpool 2), the actors, who were memorably among the Ocean’s trilogy ensemble actors, haven’t been seen on screen together since 2008’s Burn After Reading. That will soon change though, as Clooney and Pitt are teaming back up for September’s Wolfs, a crime comedy about two professional fixers who have to work together when they’re hired from the same job. Word’s now come in that Wolfs is already getting a sequel, which had been talked about, but with that update had come some bad news about the first movie.
Let’s start things off on a positive note first. Apple Original Films has announced that Wolfs writer, director and executive producer Jon Watts has signed on to write a Wolfs sequel. Clooney and Pitt will also reprise their respective roles of Jack and Nick, as opposed to Wolfs 2 following along with two different leading men or women. So if you like what you see from Wolfs later this year, take comfort knowing that this trio of talent is working to bring a follow-up adventure to your eyeballs.
Now here’s the bad news: until today, Wolfs was going to get a wide theatrical release following its world premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival, which takes place from August 28-September 7. That plan has been scrapped; instead, Wolfs will get a limited theatrical release on September 20, and then it will become available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription on September 27. In other words, if you’ve been eager to see Wolfs on a big screen, you now have a much narrower window of time to do that, and there’s no chance this movie will make a big splash at the box office.
Matt Dentler, the head of features at Apple Original Films, released this statement about the changed release plan for Wolfs:
Wolfs is the kind of big event movie that makes Apple TV+ such an exceptional home for the best in entertainment. With George and Brad’s remarkable and engaging chemistry under Jon Watts’ extraordinary direction, Wolfs blends all the great elements of comedy, action and drama into a hugely entertaining movie that will leave audiences ready for what’s next. Releasing the movie to theaters before making it widely available to Apple TV+ customers brings the best of both worlds to audiences, and we’re excited to see fans embrace the movie as we start working with Jon on the sequel.
According to Deadline’s sources, shifting Wolfs to a limited theatrical release is not foreshadowing all other Apple Original movies will follow suit. The company is instead be making these decisions on a case-by-case basis. For example, the Matt Damon and Casey Affleck-led The Instigators is currently in the midst of its limited theatrical release and will premiere on Apple TV+ this Friday, but F1, which also stars Brad Pitt, will still open wide June 25 on the 2025 release schedule, then hit Apple TV+ at a later date.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt are joined in Wolfs by Austin Abrams, Amy Ryan, Poorna Jagannathan, Richard Kind and Zlatko Burić. Keep an eye out on CinemaBlend for more Wolfs coverage, as well as news on how the Wolfs sequel is coming along.
