‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ Is Happening. ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ Is Happening. ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ Is Happening.

One of the most frustrating parts of my job are the frequent complaints from moviegoers that never line up with reality. When people want to talk about movies with me, the first question after “What should I see right now?” is always some variation of “Why are there so many sequels? Why doesn’t Hollywood make original movies anymore?” I hear this all the time. But the sequels continue to make huge money, while the occasional risk-taking originals tend to fare poorly.

Case in point: Edge of Tomorrow, the 2014 sci-fi action movie starring Tom Cruise as a man who must repeat the same horrible day (in the middle of raging war with aliens) over and over until he gets it right. The movie had an ingenious premise, great performances from Cruise and co-star Emily Blunt, and it wasn’t based on a comic or a video game or an action figure. So naturally it barely made $100 million in the U.S., far less than its reported $175 million budget. This was another novel property that got to the edge of success ... but not quite over it.

But hold on. The movie made $270 million overseas and its positive word of mouth helped it find more of an audience on home video. Now Deadline reports that Warners has hired two screenwriters, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, to write an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. It seems that Cruise will live to die and repeat another day (or the same day, given how things worked the last time.)

Deadline says Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the first Edge and did an outstanding job directing Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, was attached to direct the sequel. But on Twitter, McQuarrie himself said this is not correct:

The Gray Man is McQuarrie’s next directing assignment; it’s based on a novel by Mark Greaney and should star Charlize Theron as “an expert CIA op-turned-assassin.” (Shrapnel and Waterhouse also wrote the Jesse Owens biopic Race; Liman directed the first Edge.) Now they’ll have to figure out how to disconnect Cruise from time once again (and hopefully how to include Emily Blunt in the adventure, since she was really the highlight of the first movie). If we’re lucky, the results will be the sort of sequel that actually gets people excited about sequels, rather than going to see them while grumbling about the lack of original properties.