The Thing Reboot Director Teases What Sequel Would Have Been

Back in 2011, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. released The Thing, which served as both a reboot of and prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, which itself was a remake of 1951’s The Thing from Another World, which was an adaptation of the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell. In other words, the 2011 film wasn’t the first take on a replicating alien infecting an Antarctic research station, but it did earn the chilliest reaction from audiences and critics. Hopes were high for van Heijningen Jr. that he could make a follow-up, having recently revealed what he hoped to accomplish in a potential sequel.

“We fantasized about a sequel,” van Heijningen Jr. shared with SYFY WIRE. “Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) would escape and would be picked up at sea and tries to warn the world at an oil platform near the South Pole.” 

He added, “The monster would break loose on the rig. I liked the oil rig mayhem idea.”

Funnily enough, a The Thing video game took place on an oil rig, confirming that there was a lot of potential terror to explore in such a locale.

Given how beloved John Carpenter’s 1982 film is, van Heijningen Jr. had his work cut out for him, as it is definitively a prequel to the events of that movie, but it also replicated a number of plot points and featured many similar components. 

“The Carpenter version was so good and a lot of fans were almost offended by the prequel and didn’t see the necessity for a follow-up,” the filmmaker expressed. “But now I fully understand that it was a bit early.”

There are a number of factors that contributed to the film’s underwhelming reception, with the comparisons to the Carpenter film being among them. Specifically, the 1982 film featured special effects from Rob Bottin, which were not only impressive at the time, but continue to be regarded as some of the most gruesome and effective practical effects in any horror film. The 2011 The Thing initially incorporated practical effects and animatronics during filming, with the filmmakers even championing the special effects when unveiling footage, only for those effects to essentially be painted over with CGI.

“I know this is a debated topic, but looking back, we were caught in a cross-zone where animatronics were old-fashioned and the CGI wasn’t good enough,” van Heijningen Jr. confessed. “We made the wrong decision to do it in post-production [when it came to] making the monster design in the computer. I regret that now.”

Back in 2019, an expanded version of “Who Goes There?” was released and reports claim that a new adaptation of that extended source material is on the horizon. Stay tuned for updates on the future of The Thing.

What do you think of the director’s remarks? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!