As Godzilla vs. Kong loosens its hold on the spring box office for Mortal Kombat and upcoming May releases, we’ll miss the power of a good monster match-up. While it may be a while until another MonsterVerse movie comes out, we can apparently bet on Jason Statham’s second round with the Megalodon coming the nearish future with The Meg 2.
The action star got excited about the creature feature while promoting his latest movie Wrath of Man set for release next week. Jason Statham shared this update about what’s going on with The Meg sequel:
We're gonna start shooting in January, if I get my dates right. Ben Wheatley is the director, I'm very excited to work with him. I'm thrilled to get going, it's been a while. We've been waiting around for the right scripts to come in and the right director to turn up, and we've got all those things and they're all stacked up now.
It sounds like everything is starting to finally come together for the Warner Bros blockbuster three years after the massive success of the first movie. As Jason Statham told Collider, he’s expecting to come face-to-face with the Megalodon at the top of 2022. The movie has yet to get a release date, but if all goes as planned, I’d imagine we’re looking at a summer 2023 opening for The Meg 2.
The first movie was directed by Jon Turteltaub, who is also well-known for helming National Treasure, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Last Vegas. The sequel will have Ben Wheatley leading the charge. Wheatley previously did Kill List, High-Rise and Netflix’s Rebecca. Statham also gushed about the director with the following:
Yeah [Wheatley's] great. We have a great shorthand already. We've got similar taste. I like his movies, I think he's a brilliant director. I think we've got a good shot at making something good.
At this point, we don’t know much about what to expect from the second Meg film, but the three writers who took on the first movie, Dean Georgaris, Erich and Jon Hoeber, are reportedly all back and writing the script. We’ll have to wait and see if other members of the last cast, including Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Ruby Rose and Masi Oka, will join Jason Statham as well.
The Meg made a huge splash at the box office in 2018, with a $530 million haul against a $130 million production budget. A sequel was greenlit later that year, but Jason Statham has definitely been tied up with movies like Hobbs & Shaw and his upcoming collaboration with Guy Ritchie, Wrath of Man. The action thriller that will have the actor playing a mysterious man working at a cash truck company hits theaters May 7. Get ready for summer 2021 with CinemaBlend’s movie release schedule.
