In the time of legacy sequels, a gap of 17 years between a movie and its follow-up does not seem as implausible as it once did. For that reason, there is still a chance of seeingan almost-forgotten action thrillerstarringJames McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, and Angelina Jolie - as an assassin you wouldn’t mind being hunted down by - get an unexpected sequel. Especially if writerDerek Haashas anything to do with it.
Back in 2008,Wanteddelivered a reasonable set of reviews and a strong $342 million box office result from its $75 million budget. That would usually mean that a sequel would very quickly be heading into production. It seemed that was the plan at the time as a script was written and then…nothing. Now almost two decades later, writer Haas has shared his thoughts on whether there is a chance of a new movie ever being made, and urged one of the movie’s stars to make it happen. He toldScreenRant:
“Michael Brandt and I wrote a script for it that I still think is pretty good. And James McAvoy, come on back, let’s do Wesley again.”
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Naturally, this is not exactly how things work, and Universal – who financed the original movie – would have to feel that a sequel would have the potential to build on the original win back in 2008. After 17 years, and not having connections to a well-known IP, it seems thatWantedmay simply not be.
Could ‘Wanted 2’ Happen?
As Haas went on to say, “Never say never in this town, that’s for sure.” However, there could be one big stumbling block for aWantedsequel, as James McAvoy previously appeared to rule himself out of playing an aging action star. He said back in 2024:
“There were a couple of scripts that came my way for sequels, but they weren’t strong enough, so that’s why they never happened. If there was a script there that was absolutely banging, then, yeah, I’d be disappointed. But we made something that I’m really proud of. Timur [Bekmambetov] was really proud of it. The studio was really proud of it. Everybody was really excited by it, and it’s stood the test of time a little bit. It’s always on streamers, and people are always watching it. I still get so much love for it from young people who weren’t alive back then. So I’m proud of what we did, and I wouldn’t want to tarnish it by doing something that was not quite as strong. And, look, I’m too old to play Wesley now anyway. It’s a young person’s role now.”
It looks like while there was every chance thatWanted 2could have happened a decade ago, perhaps it has been too long now. Although we have seen Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to his role as the Terminator for decades, and Liam Neeson only finding his action feet in his 50s, McAvoy doesn’t seem like he wants to be the next graying action star on the block.
Source:ScreenRant
