It cost 200 million US dollars, grossed 540.5 million and starred a mega-star, Brad Pitt: World War Z took the zombie genre to blockbuster size 10 years ago. Before or since, no one had filmed the zombie theme more powerfully. The sequel to the infected epic was pushed forward for years – but never materialized. At some point the plans died more or less without comment.
In the meantime, Fight Club director David Fincher sat in the unfortunately imaginary director’s chair. On the occasion of his new film, he revealed very interesting details about the failed sequel to GQ.
The World War Z sequel would have been similar to The Last of Us
In World War Z, ex-UN employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is in Philadelphia with his family when all hell breaks loose. What looks like a typical rush hour traffic jam turns out to be Harbinger of the apocalypse. Hordes of undead are plunging the world into chaos. Lane is tasked with finding the origin of the virus and travels around the globe to do so.
Paramount
Brad Pitt in Word War Z
The zombie genre has continued to evolve in the 10 years since World War Z was released in theaters. And so it happened that this year, HBO’s highly acclaimed game adaptation The Last of Us used ideas that David Fincher had in mind for World War Z 2. What should his film look like?
Well, it was a bit like The Last of Us. I’m glad we didn’t do thatbecause The Last of Us has a lot more room to explore the same things.
Spoilers for The Last of Us: We can only speculate what “things” Fincher means. He probably refers to the advanced level of post-apocalypse that we see in the series. In the story of Ellie and Joel, decades have passed since a fungus turned people into monsters. David Fincher’s WWZ2 might have made a similar time jump.
Fincher also praised the first scene of The Last of Us. Before the series shows the outbreak of the pandemic in 2003, it travels back to 1968. There is a talk show in which two scientists discuss the possibility of a pandemic scenario using the Cordyceps fungus as an example. A stroke of genius.
Why did World War Z 2 fail?
David Fincher can now live well with the fate of the World War Z sequel. As recently as 2017, he was a driving force behind the sequel, but fought against resistance. The cinema release was initially delayed due to a scheduling conflict with Netflix. Then Paramount put the project on hold, probably due to budget problems. Ultimately, the studio pulled the plug on the production entirely – probably because China wouldn’t show the film in its cinemas.
When is David Fincher’s next film coming out?
Fincher spoke about World War Z on the occasion of his new film The Killer. The thriller starring Michael Fassbender opens on October 26, 2023 in German cinemas. Then he comes to Netflix.
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