World War Z Producers Still Want to Make Sequel “Someday”

The road to the release of the original World War Z film was a rocky one, with the sequel seeing similar setbacks, but producer Jeremy Kleiner is still hoping to deliver a follow-up adventure someday. Almost immediately after the original film’s 2013 release, speculation began about a sequel, given the inherent potential of the premise, with frequent Brad Pitt collaborator David Fincher even being attached to the project at various points in time, with one of the last updates coming last year when it was reported that the last incarnation of the project had been officially scrapped by studio Paramount Pictures.

“Someday. We love Max Brooks’ book,” Kleiner shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “We love the universe of it. It doesn’t feel like the World War Z is done and over with.”

Published in 2006, Brooks’ World War Z novel served as an oral history of a global zombie outbreak. The book consisted of a number of vignettes about the outbreak at various points in time and in different corners of the globe, feeling more like an anthology novel than a linear narrative.

Thanks to the debut of AMC’s The Walking Dead adaptation in 2010, the zombie subgenre of horror was seeing a surge in popularity, with the World War Z adaptation heading into production in 2011 starring Pitt. While not a verbatim adaptation of the source material, the film saw Pitt’s Gerry Lane traveling the world in hopes of delivering a cure to the necessary organization, seeing him face a variety of stages of the epidemic in various locales.

Despite Pitt’s involvement in the film and the public’s revived interest in zombie stories, it was a long journey to the film’s debut.

The film’s planned finale required a large array of firearms, which were confiscated by authorities in Budapest after the production failed to properly declare the props with the local government, which resulted in the film being delayed into the following year. LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof was tapped to re-write the film’s third act in 2012, only to depart the project before writing an ending. Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard then stepped in to finish writing the film, though his new ending required nearly 40 minutes of new footage to form a more cohesive narrative.

After all the re-shoots, the production budget ended up totaling closer to $200 million. The film had intended to hit theaters in December of 2012 and was eventually released in the summer of 2013. Despite all these starts, stops, and alterations, the film went on to earn $540 million worldwide, making it a success.

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of the World War Z sequel.

Are you hoping we get to see the sequel someday? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!