Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
Production has reportedly begun on the sequel to The Meg, the surprise blockbuster about a prehistoric shark that returns from the depths to torture mankind generally, and Jason Statham specifically. (The title is short for megalodon, a kind of ancient sea dweller.) According to Variety, the film is titled Meg 2: The Trench. They have a few more details about the plot:
Statham and Bingbing Li are expected to reprise their roles in the sequel: Statham as U.S. Navy rescue diver Jonas and Li as oceanographer Suyin. (Before becoming an actor Statham was a world-class diver in real life too, competing as a member of Britain’s National Diving Squad and even representing the country at the 1990 Commonwealth Games).
The sequel will be directed by Ben Wheatley of Kill List and High-Rise fame; his last two projects were a remake of Rebecca and the horror film In the Earth. No word yet on who is playing the Meg in this movie; probably a Meg, I imagine.
The first Meg grossed an impressive $530 million worldwide when it was released in the summer of 2018. In our review of the movie, an extremely intelligent critic write the film had “an innate understanding of its own absurdity, and is at its best when it embraces and amplifies that impulse. It includes the line “It’s a great day to go fishing!” It has a water-bound chase between a tiny dog and a giant shark. It has a scene where a little shark swims out of the mouth of a bigger shark. And, God bless it, it has an entire sequence where Jason Statham and the Meg get into an underwater dogfight, with Statham inside an advanced submarine that looks like a Star Wars spaceship while the Meg, y’know, swims and stuff.” If the sequel continues to embrace that absurdity, there’s no reason it couldn’t be another entertaining horror comedy.
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