After more than two decades in development, “The Meg” finally came to the screen in the form of a Jason Statham-led PG-13 rated vehicle in 2018.
Expectations were not high and reviews were so-so, but the Statham vs. 75-foot prehistoric shark film was a big hit – grossing over half a billion dollars at the global box office which made a sequel likely.
Cut to British director Ben Wheatley (“Kill List,” “Free Fire”) being hired a while back to direct the film, taking over from “National Treasure” helmer Jon Turteltaub.
Wheatley is a more eccentric and darker choice so, naturally, there’s been an expectation he may be taking the franchise into more serious and potentially more R-rated territory.
However, Wheatley tells ComicBook.com he intends to honor what has come before and cites his work on the first two episodes of Peter Capaldi’s run on “Doctor Who” as an example of him working within the set parameters of a franchise:
“A lot of it is respecting The Meg, and trying to make sure it’s a great Meg film. And as you can see from the movies I’ve made, they’re not necessarily, it’s not … when you go and do Doctor Who, I don’t completely change it because I wanted to do it. I didn’t want to necessarily make it something completely different that nobody recognized, you know? So there’s that element of back and forth.”
Wheatley also promises some epic action sequences for the film, saying the large budget gives him the chance to go a bit wild:
“It’s an opportunity to do action on such an insanely large scale, that it’s just unbelievable. From doing Free Fire, which was, I thought, was all my Christmases came at once in terms of action, this is just unbelievable. And just doing the storyboards for it, just thinking and going, ‘Oh,’ it’s just … I feel a heavy responsibility for it, to make sure that it kind of delivers on all the, to all the big shark fans out there.”
Statham is expected to reprise his role for the sequel and has, in the past, expressed a desire to turn the series into a billion-dollar franchise.