For seven years now, fans have been awaiting word on the long-rumored sequel to Warner Bros.' 2014 sci-fi/action sleeper hit Edge of Tomorrow, and in late 2019, it actually seemed like the film was finally about to head into production once Tom Cruise wrapped filming on his two Mission: Impossible sequels.
However, a pandemic happened and threw a wrench in everyone's plans.
While the studio does have a completed script that director Doug Liman, Cruise, and Emily Blunt are all fond of, scheduling issues had previously prevented them from getting started prior to 2019, and it sounds like sorting out its stars' schedules hasn't gotten any easier over the past year.
Cruise is still busy filming Mission: Impossible 7 and is expected to start Mission: Impossible 8 immediately after, a shoot that will likely have him tied up until next year. He's also set to launch himself into space for an Untitled SpaceX Project that has Liman at the helm. Meanwhile, Blunt has the drama Not Fade Away and the Amazon series The English on her docket.
Another wrinkle, as revealed by Blunt during her recent sit-down interview with Howard Stern, is that the film may simply be too expensive to produce, especially in a post-pandemic Hollywood. “Honestly, I think the movie is too expensive. I just don’t know how we’re going to do it.”
Considering the first film grossed only $370.5 million globally on an estimated $178 million production budget, it's understandable that Warner Bros. would have reservations about potentially releasing a sequel nearly a decade after the original in a post-pandemic landscape. It's also reasonable to rule out a potential HBO Max release, as Cruise is highly unlikely to say yes to anything but a traditional theatrical launch.
Even though this isn't the most promising update, the three principal figures do all still seem very interested in the project.
Liman recently teased to Collider, “It’s one of these things where if Tom, Emily, and I were to say, ‘we’re ready to pull the trigger on this script,’ it’s Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, the film gets made. That’s pretty much how Hollywood works. The stars are the gatekeepers. If you can get Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt to commit to the movie, it’s going to happen.”