Jason Statham Making An Unbelievable Number Of Meg Movies?
Jason Statham made a splash this summer at the box office with the successful Meg 2: The Trench, a sequel to 2018’s giant shark thriller The Meg. With the second Meg movie on track to pass the $400 million mark worldwide, more than double its reported $185 million budget, can more Megs be far behind? With a book series that encompasses seven novels, one crossover with The Loch, and an upcoming 8th novel, Meg: Purgatory, scheduled for release next year, there’s certainly no shortage of material to base a franchise on should Jason Statham and Meg 2 director Ben Wheatley choose to continue their undersea adventures.
“My feeling has always been that this is a billion-dollar franchise if it was done right.”
-Steve Alten, author of The Meg book series
While Jason Statham has yet to commit to any potential Meg sequels past number 2, his attitude about making an initial follow-up was, quite bluntly, “if it makes money.” Given that Meg 2: The Trench was—along with Barbie—one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s only profitable films in a year that included the studio’s biggest flop in history, it’s almost guaranteed that development for Meg 3 will start as soon as the strikes are resolved.
Hopefully, the franchise’s current status as a moneymaker will entice Statham to come back for the all-but-inevitable part 3 once it’s announced.
The author of The Meg book series, Steve Alten, seems for his part to be optimistic about the future of the Meg IP at one point commenting, “My feeling has always been that this is a billion-dollar franchise if it was done right.” The author followed up his initial statement by saying that Warner Bros. “nailed it completely.”
Meanwhile, Meg 2 director Ben Wheatley has spoken openly about his potential plans for at least a trilogy of films—if not more. Wheatley made comments about the future of the Meg film series prior to the release of Meg 2, where he acknowledged that it was premature to discuss the third movie before the second has a chance to succeed or fail at the box office but said that “There’s a lot more to explore in that world.”
Indeed, should Meg 3 get the go-ahead, fans can probably get a jump on the sequel’s story by looking at the third Meg novel, Meg: Primal Waters.
Presumably, “that world” would include Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor and his surviving crew members — Mac (Cliff Curtis), Meiying (Sophia Cai), and DJ (Page Kennedy) — provided all the Meg actors are up for another battle with titular pre-historic fish.
Meg Without Statham?
Should Jason Statham decide for whatever reason not to return for a third Meg movie, fans can assume that the role of Jonas Taylor would be recast rather than written out of the series, seeing as how he’s the protagonist of the book series. That’s not to say that the movies couldn’t decide to suddenly deviate wildly from the books, but given that Warner Bros. has several stories already written and sitting right there just waiting to be adapted, it would be silly not to take advantage of it.
Indeed, should Meg 3 get the go-ahead, fans can probably get a jump on the sequel’s story by looking at the third Meg novel, Meg: Primal Waters. If that turns out to be the case, expect to see Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor take a job as a consultant on an ocean-based reality TV series that gets attacked by megalodons.
Ultimately, whether Jason Statham returns for more Meg films or not, it’s a good bet that fans haven’t seen the last of the oversized man-eaters. Jaws, shmaws. Hollywood is now Meg country.
