Filmmaker Neil Marshall no longer believes a sequel to Dog Soldiers will happen. On Monday, November 11th Marshall posted a movie poster for Dog Soldiers 2: Underdogs, writing: “So… It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that this teaser poster is probably as close as we’ll ever get to a Dog Soldiers sequel.” After waiting over two decades, many commenters are not ready to give up hope.
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“Since so many fans keep asking, I figured I couldn’t keep the disappointing news to myself any longer,” Marshall went on. “Your unwavering loyalty deserves better.” Dog Soldiers was Marshall’s feature directorial debut when it hit theaters back in 2002. It was an instant hit, and it launched a successful career for Marshall as well as others. There have been rumblings of a sequel in recent years, and in his new post Marshall revealed that he has been trying to negotiate the rights for a sequel since 2018. Unfortunately, the rights holder, David E. Allen and his company Dash, seem to have left the table.
“Unfortunately these negotiations came to a sudden and unexpected halt when, earlier this year, we were due to finalize and sign the agreements and…they disappeared,” he wrote. “Vanished. Cut off all communication. Refuse to answer emails or calls. Why, you ask. I don’t know why. That’s the point. We simply don’t know what happened or why, but the end result is that we don’t have the rights to make a sequel without this deal in place, thus rendering it effectively dead.”
“I’m sorry. We tried. We really did,” Marshall went on. “We wanted this for you. For all the countless fans who’ve asked for it. But in the end, perhaps it’s just not meant to be. The original film was lightning in a bottle, and perhaps lightning doesn’t, and in some cases shouldn’t, strike twice. So there it is.”
Dog Soldiers stars Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and Liam Cunningham as a group of soldiers stranded in the Scottish Highlands during a training exercise when they are attacked by werewolves, and Emma Cleasby as a local woman who shelters them. The movie was a critical and commercial success, and was definitely a factor in the cast and crew’s future successes – including both Marshall and Cunningham’s time on Game of Thrones. Cunningham played Davos on the fantasy drama, while Marshall directed action-heavy episodes including “The Watchers on the Wall,” which earned him an Emmy.
Dog Soldiers is streaming now on Peacock in the U.S. Those that are still holding out hope for a sequel are congregating in the comments of Marshall’s Instagram post.
