‘Edge of tomorrow’ is a film that left a very good taste in the mouth when it was released eight years ago. It didn’t take long for talk of a sequel to begin, to the point that in 2016 the return of Doug Liman behind the scenes and the signings of Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse to deal with the script. If they seemed so clear, how come we’re still waiting to see ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’?
The first culprit of this is found in the disappointing commercial tour of the first installmentsince it cost 178 million dollars -without costing marketing expenses- and grossed 367. Most likely, Warner lost money with that income in theaters, especially since in the United States it barely amassed 100 million and, as I already told you in In the case of ‘Alita: Battle Angel’, many sequels never came to fruition because they did not live up to expectations in that market.
stuck
Nevertheless, That hasn’t stopped talk of a sequel as a very real possibility., since the popularity of ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ was growing after its passage through theaters. For example, in the United States alone, sales in physical format were close to 28 million dollars, while online the most common thing is that it is talked about very well from time to time, either by someone who has just discovered it or by the umpteenth revision of any of his fans.
In fact, in 2017 it was confirmed that both Cruise and Blunt had reached an agreement to participate in a sequel that would receive the title of ‘Live, Die, Repeat and Repeat’. And it is that Warner made a peculiar move for its release in physical format in North America, going from the original title of ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ to ‘Live. Die. Repeat’. In addition, Liman had triggered expectations shortly before stating that he was going to “revolutionize how sequels are made”.
The problem is that the script did not finish taking shape, so already in 2019 he signed matthew robinson (‘Monster Trucks’) to polish it, announcing just a few months that the script was ready. However, Liman left us with doubts again at the beginning of 2020, as it was then clear that they still had a lot of work to do.
The actual situation
Then the pandemic arrived and there was a year without any news about the film, to the point that many of us suspected that the project would ultimately come to nothing. Some statements by Liman already in 2021 implied that everything depended on Cruise and Blunt deciding to take a step forward, but they also had to do it at the same time, something complicated given their respective agendas. Now that the intense promotional campaign for the wonderful ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is over, he is currently involved in the filming of ‘Mission Impossible: Deadly Sentence – Part 2’, while she will begin shooting ‘Pain Hustlers’ shortly, a film for whose rights Netflix has paid a multimillion dollar amount.
In addition, Blunt also showed certain doubts about the future of ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ last year, noting that the additional expenses caused by the coronavirus could make it unfeasible. Everything indicates that Warner could think the same, because just a few months ago it was learned that the studio has been considering the possibility of making a television spin-off designed for HBO Max, but there we have discovered a new problem for this franchise to have more deliveries.
And it is that behind ‘The edge of tomorrow’ there was also the producer Village Roadshow, which is involved in a legal battle with Warner over the latter’s decision to want to do new projects linked to some projects they did together without Village Roadshow. To the point that it seems that Warner is refusing to move forward with those projects unless Village Roadshow agrees to relinquish all of its rights. That does not exactly help that ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ ends up being made.
In conclusion, today it seems very unlikely that one day we will see ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’, but the great success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ may cause that to change, as it has become clear that there is a lot of interest in things starring Cruise beyond the ‘Mission Impossible’ saga. The key to this will be that the actor remains interested -remember that he also has a movie on his agenda that he will shoot in space- and that they can balance the agendas with Blunt. Beyond that, everything is problems and doubts….
