We loved the original novel WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks and thought it would make an epic film if ever optioned. Fast forward to 2013 and the film, starring Brad Pitt, was very different from the source material. So much so that Max Brooks distanced himself from the project, calling it “WORLD WAR Z IN NAME ONLY.” Despite this, the film did very well at the box office, taking in more than $540 million worldwide after a number of script rewrites, creative changes and reshoots. Some reports claim the movie had a production budget of more than $250 million, which slightly dampens the celebration.
Still, there was always plenty of room for the WORLD WAR Z universe to continue, and now we finally have some movement. According to Deadline, Brad Pitt is returning for a sequel, with Edward Berger, director of The Riders, set to take over behind the camera.
That’s a pretty interesting combination for a movie that has spent years stuck in development limbo.
WATCH THE ORIGINAL TRAILER FOR WORLD WAR Z BELOW
The original film gave us Pitt as Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator who finds himself separated from his family after a zombie outbreak spreads across the globe. His background puts him in a unique position to travel through the escalating crisis while searching for his wife and daughters, giving the film an excuse to bounce between different locations and stages of the outbreak.
That approach was quite a departure from Brooks’ novel, which was structured as a collection of interviews and firsthand accounts from survivors around the world. Rather than following one central character through the apocalypse, the book examined how different governments, militaries and communities responded to the zombie war, creating a much broader picture of what a global outbreak might actually look like.
At the moment, there are no plot details for WORLD WAR Z 2, so we have no idea where Gerry’s story will pick up or how closely the new film will connect to the events of the first movie. Considering how much time has passed since the 2013 film, there is certainly plenty of room to take the story in a completely different direction.
This also isn’t the first time Pitt has been attached to another WORLD WAR Z adventure. David Fincher was previously lined up to direct a sequel, but that version of the project was ultimately scrapped in 2019. Whether Berger’s film builds on any of the previous development or starts completely fresh remains unclear.
For fans of the book, there’s still plenty of reason to be curious about where this goes. The original novel contains enough material to fuel several movies, and the global scale of Brooks’ story has always felt like an opportunity the first film only partially explored.
For now, all we know is that Brad Pitt is back, Edward Berger is directing, and the zombie apocalypse apparently isn’t finished with us yet.
Stay tuned for more updates on WORLD WAR Z 2.
