Just when Jason Statham thought it was safe to go back in the water, he’ll be returning for a sequel to his 2018 prehistoric shark thrillerThe Meg. Steve Alten, the author of the novel upon whichThe Megwas based, announced inthat he’d finished writing a sequel calledMeg 2: The Trench. Alten said that the tone of the new script is “dark” and that the eventual movie might be rated R. WithBen Wheatley ofKill List,Sightseers, andA Field in Englandin the director’s chair, an R rating is practically a given.
The sequel announcement was hardly surprising after the first movie brought in over $500 million at the worldwide box office. Critics weren’t too thrilled with it, but there’s not much room for nuance in a movie about a 75-foot shark.The Meghad a simplistic premise –essentiallyJawswith a much bigger shark– but it fully committed to that premise. All the goofy fun that audiences expected from that premise was realized in the movie. The meg spends the third act prowling around a crowded beach, eating mouthfuls of tourists, just like the posters promised.
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Audiences went to this movie wanting to see Jason Statham fighting a giant shark and that’s exactly what they got. In the final battle, Statham actually gets out of his submersible and engages the meg in hand-to-hand combat – and wins.The Meggave summer moviegoersall the pure escapism they could hope for, andMeg 2has the opportunity to do the same thing a few summers later. But if the wildest thing that happens in the upcoming sequel is Statham fighting another giant shark, it’ll be disappointing because we’ve already seen that.Meg 2needs to up the ante with even bigger scares and wilder set pieces than its predecessor.
A common problem with sequels is simply copying what worked in the first one. While the firstGuardians of the GalaxyandKingsmanmovies botharrived as a breath of fresh airthat revitalized their respective genres, their sequels failed to recapture that surprise because they just felt like more of the same.Die Hard 2,Home Alone 2, andThe Hangover Part IIliterally just did the plot of the first movie all over again. There’s a risk that inMeg 2, another megalodon will escape, so Statham will assemble another team of scientists to kill it, because that’s what happened in the first movie and it worked perfectly fine to the tune of $500 million.
But what made the firstMegmovie so refreshing is that it took its shark action a lot further than the otherJawsrip-offs out there dare to. While movies like47 Meters DownandThe Shallowsfell short of the audience’s expectations,The Megwent above and beyond what audiences were expecting to see.The Stathliterally kills the meg with his bare hands as he hitches a ride on its head and jams a blade into its eye. There’s potential for a long-running Jason Statham vs. sea monsters franchise here, but the stories need to keep evolving and exploring new corners of the mythology and going bigger and bolder than before if that franchise is going to survive past its second installment.
The sequel’s subtitle,The Trench, suggests that the sequel will take Statham into the thermocline from which the original movie’s megalodons escaped. If that’s the case, then it could copyJames Cameron’s trick fromAliens. Cameron followed up the threat of one xenomorph from Ridley Scott’sAlienwith a swarm of dozens of them. There were technically two megs in the firstMegmovie, but the protagonists only had to face one at a time. In the sequel, Statham could be up against dozens of giant sea creatures at once.
Wheatley doesn’t have any experience directing mega-budget blockbusters, but his movies have featured plenty of action.Free Fireis essentially a feature-length shootout.Speaking recentlyabout storyboardingMeg 2, Wheatley said he saw the project as “an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale that it’s just unbelievable.” He added, “I feel a heavy responsibility to make sure that it kind of delivers to all the big shark fans out there,” so it sounds like the movie is in safe hands.
Based on the dystopian mysteries ofHigh-Riseandthe Hitchcockian thrills ofRebecca, Wheatley could be the perfect person to helmThe Meg’s upcoming sequel. Not only does he understand the need for big shark action above all; he’ll be able to bring a degree of suspense and tension to the sequel that was somewhat missing from its brazenly unsubtle predecessor. Whatever happens inMeg 2, it can’t just rehash the first movie. The first movie was a great jumping-off point for its sequels to go even bigger and crazier.
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