EDGE OF TOMORROW Sequel Script Is Complete, But Scheduling Filming Dates May Take A While
While on the press tour for his critically acclaimed Tom Cruise-starrer American Made, director Doug Liman shared a very promising update about the highly anticipated Edge of Tomorrow sequel. Check it out!
Edge of Tomorrow was arguably the biggest (and most welcome) surprise of summer 2014 and despite a better-than-modest $370.5 million worldwide box office collection ($100.2M domestic, $270.3M foreign) on a $178 million budget, a sequel was far from guaranteed. However, as fate would have it, the fan support once the film arrived on home video grew increasingly louder over the past few years, which ultimately convinced Warner Bros. to give the go-ahead to Liman to start developing a potential follow-up with Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and writer Chris McQuarrie all returning.
Race scribes Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse were later enlisted to pen the script under the supervision of McQuarrie, who at the time was busy penning another Cruise vehicle, Mission: Impossible 6. We haven't heard much about the sequel's plot since then, save for the fact that it may serve as a prequel of sorts and that it might be titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat, but now, Liman has confirmed to Collider that the script has indeed been completed by the writing duo, although he cautions that it may still take some time before the cameras get rolling. Read his comments below:
“Tom and Emily [Blunt] and I are really excited to go do it. We have a script. We’re just trying to find a time to schedule it, between my schedule and Emily’s and Tom’s. But it’s one of these things where it’s a sequel whose origins come from the best possible place, which is, it’s not a studio saying, ‘Hey, we think we can make some more money. Let’s just stamp out another one.’ This sequel originated with fans of the original film who continually came up to Tom and myself and Emily and told us how much they loved the movie and would we ever consider a sequel. And enough people said that to me and to Tom and to Emily that we finally sat down and said, ‘What would a sequel even look like?’ We ended up with Chris McQuarrie coming up with a great story.”
Looking ahead at Cruise's schedule, he just resumed work on Mission: Impossible 6, which is due out in theaters next July, and is then expected to head straight into Top Gun: Maverick, which is due out in theaters July 2019, next spring., which means he'll be unavailable to film until at least next fall, if not 2019 at the earliest. As for Blunt, she recently wrapped both Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place, but is easily one of the most sought-after actresses in the industry, so her schedule for next year will likely fill up much sooner rather than later. Liman is also busy at the moment filming Chaos Walking, which likely suggests he'll be unable to begin work on Edge of Tomorrow 2 anytime soon.
So, if we were to make a guess, 2019 seems like the safest bet for principal photography to begin, which means a 2020 release date may be in the cards.
“It really comes from the heart. And by the way, I never worked with Tom on one of these giant tent-pole movies, so I don’t … Everything I’ve ever seen him do or worked with him on comes from the heart in the most pure place. I mean, he is always thinking about his fans. He’s always thinking about the audience. He’s not one of these movie stars that thinks he’s an anointed movie star. He genuinely understands that he’s a movie star because people like his movies. And he wants to deliver for those people.”