It is a little surprising how many sequels currently remain in development hell, considering it is no secret that Hollywood loves its franchises. For instance, Edge of Tomorrow 2 – the follow-up to an acclaimed sci-fi movie from 2014 – was announced nearly a decade ago but still has yet to see the light of day.
So will this long-awaited blockbuster ever get made and how close to becoming a reality is it? Let’s see what we can tell you about Edge of Tomorrow 2 and other movie sequels we are still waiting for.
Edge Of Tomorrow 2
The action-packed time loop movie Edge of Tomorrow stars Tom Cruise as a reluctant soldier in a war against alien invaders who finds himself reliving the same day over and over again. The same can be said about plans for the sequel, tentatively titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat, which has gone through multiple script rewrites since it was first announced in 2015.
Director Doug Liman has said that the alien invasion movie’s next chapter will “revolutionize how people make sequels,” but his more recent comments to Collider in 2021 suggest the production relies on Cruise and Emily Blunt’s availability. Further evidence suggests the stars are both ready, so hopefully its recent popularity on Netflix will be enough to escape the time loop.
Sherlock Holmes 3
The ending of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows saw Robert Downey Jr.’s detective faking his death and reappearing to place a question mark after “THE END” on John Watson’s (Jude Law) supposed final story about him. Was that really the end of Guy Ritchie’s movies based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s seminal mystery novels after all?
The development of Sherlock Holmes 3 dates back to when A Game of Shadows was released in 2011, but numerous delays caused by your typical rewrites and scheduling conflicts, Ritchie being replaced by Dexter Fletcher (who called the script brilliant), and the COVID-19 pandemic have left it in limbo. In 2024, producer and RDJ’s wife Susan Downey told ScreenRant that the threequel is “still very much alive in our hearts,” but until we see some concrete evidence of it coming together, this case remains unsolved.
Star Trek 4
With all of the upcoming Star Trek movies and TV shows in the works, it is clear that the cosmic franchise pioneered in the 1960s by Gene Roddenberry is now bigger than ever. That being said, how is it that it took until 2024 for the long-awaited Star Trek 4 to move forward?
After years of promising updates and setbacks, as revealed at CinemaCon in April, the fourth installment of the reboot franchise that J.J. Abrams kicked off in 2009 is set to start shooting in late 2024 with director Toby Haynes and is set for a 2025 release. However, star Chris Pine seemed confused over whether or not he was officially returning as Captain Kirk when speaking to Business Insider the following month, so we’ll take a cue from him and “just wait and see.”
Galaxy Quest 2
If we end up not seeing another Star Trek movie after all, a perfect consolation would be a sequel to Galaxy Quest. The beloved ‘90s movie is a brilliant satire of Trekkie culture in which the stars of a canceled sci-fi TV show get to be real heroes when aliens who believe their adventures were real enlist them to stop an intergalactic tyrant.
After 25 years of talk over another quest, intriguing developments, and the untimely death of Alan Rickman, the most recent major update came from a 2023 report by Deadline stating that a limited series based on the movie was in development at Paramount+. Hopefully, the follow-up does become an official reality, proving that it really does pay off to “never give up, never surrender!”
Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2
The closest that we have gotten to a sequel to 1988’s not–so-kid-friendly family movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, were animated shorts featuring the titular hare (voiced by Charles Fleischer) and the Disneyland ride, “Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.” An official feature-length follow-up to the $351 million blockbuster is a few decades too late, though, despite attempts in 1989, the late ‘90s, and the 2010s.
The last time we heard anything about it was in director Robert Zemeckis’ 2018 interview with Yahoo! Movies, in which he claimed the most recent script was “wonderful,” but Disney has no interest. Part of us is okay with leaving things at that, especially since Eddie Valiant actor Bob Hoskins is no longer with us.
National Treasure 3
While they may not be the most definitive Nicolas Cage movies, the Oscar winner’s most profitable efforts by a longshot are the National Treasure films – a pair of Indiana Jones-esque adventure tales for history buffs released in 2004 and 2007 respectively. One would assume that Disney would have been quick to break ground for a third treasure hunt, but the studio has really taken its time with it, asking for multiple rewrites.
While Disney+ would release a series without Cage called National Treasure: Edge of History in 2022, the last real update to National Treasure 3’s development came from screenwriter Ted Elliott, who teased updates to the characters and canonical ties to the TV show on the National Treasure Hunt podcast in August 2024. Director Jon Turtletaub also told the same podcast that the franchise star would be “100%” up for returning, so let’s hope this next adventure officially becomes an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie soon.
World War Z 2
The 2013 adaptation of Max Brooks’ “oral history of the Zombie War” ended with Brad Pitt’s Gerry Lane inciting hope for an end to a global, cannibalistic pandemic with a potential cure, but after years, many have lost hope in seeing a continuation to the story. The sequel to World War Z had been plagued with a series of delays due to rotating screenwriters and directors, with Pitt’s Fight Club collaborator David Fincher attached at one point, before Paramount officially canceled the project in February 2019.
However, Jeremy Kleiner, a producer on the first film, has not given up on World War Z 2 and the potential for more from the world of one of the most realistic zombie movies is still widely discussed. Even though Fincher told GQ he is actually glad his sequel did not happen due to coincidental similarities to HBO’s The Last of Us, if he were to come up with something fresh and Pitt was on board, we would be, too.
District 10
South African director Neill Blomkamp hit the ground running in 2009 with his Academy Award-nominated feature-length debut, District 9, imagining a world in which extraterrestrial immigrants live on Earth in segregation from human beings. However, anyone hoping to see (SPOILER ALERT) Prawn Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope) return to help reverse Wikus Van De Merwe’s (Sharlto Copley) alien mutation might have to wait a bit longer.
While promoting Gran Turismo in 2023, Blomkamp told THR that the chances of District 10 happening are not certain, nor are his aspirations to go forward with it, but he adds, “it’ll probably get made” at some point. So, it looks like there is still hope!
Triplets
In 2024, we finally saw Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – the long-awaited third sequel to one of Eddie Murphy’s best movies. However, there was another sequel to a classic ‘80s movie that he was once said to be involved in called Triplets, which would reveal this his character is the long-long third brother of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito characters from 1988’s Twins.
Schwarzenegger claimed in a THR interview that it was Twins director Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason, who had the project canceled after his father’s passing in 2022. The action star adds that he and DeVito still really want to do it and if Murphy’s replacement, Tracy Morgan, is still down, maybe we should not cut the cord too soon.
We would love to be able to predict the future and give you a definitive update on how and when these sequels will make it to theaters, but until then, just keep your fingers crossed.
