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One of the stars of the popular 2023 slasher flick Thanksgiving says that the sequel will answer questions and raise the stakes.
Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: jason statham, meg 2: the trench, the meg, the meg 3, Warner Bros
Meg 2: The Trench Director Doesn't Know if The Meg 3 is Happening
The director of Meg 2: The Trench reveals he hasn't heard any new updates on the status of a potential third installment.
Article Summary
- Meg 2: The Trench director Ben Wheatley says he has no updates on the status of The Meg 3.
- The Meg franchise has seen strong box office numbers, making a third film seem likely to fans.
- Despite solid performance, official confirmation of The Meg 3 from Warner Bros. is still missing.
- Meg 2’s ending leaves open threads, teasing more giant shark action if a sequel moves forward.
When The Meg hit theaters in 2018, it sounded like the kind of silly creature-feature gamble studios do once in a while, but it quickly turned into an unexpectedly sturdy hit. From a plot perspective (other than the 'big shark' angle), the movie follows rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) as a deep-sea mission goes sideways and a megalodon that shouldn't exist ends up loose in the Pacific. It's simple, cheesy, and basically built for popcorn, which is what audiences clearly showed up for, with the film finishing at about $529 million worldwide. That success also made a sequel an easy decision, and Meg 2: The Trench leaned even harder into the blockbuster quirks.
In that installment, Ben Wheatley's 2023 follow-up specifically put Jonas back with the Mana One crew, added Wu Jing as Jiuming Zhang, and swapped the first film's single-shark escalation for a full monster buffet that includes multiple Megs plus other deep-sea threats. It even did solid business for this kind of mid-budget spectacle, grossing about $397.8 million worldwide, despite reviews being rougher than the first movie's.
And for a while, that result seemed like the green light for a third entry, especially since Wheatley himself had previously said a third movie was being discussed and could happen if the sequel succeeded. However, when The Direct recently asked him where things stand now, his answer was not exactly a confident tease.
Meg 2: The Trench Director Doesn't Know if The Meg 3 is Happening
The director tells the outlet, "I don't know. I think that… I'm sure the Meg itself, it's out there swimming. There's a massive, dark shadow in the sea. But I don't know what's going on [with a third movie]." If Warner Bros. does decide to pull the trigger (with or without Wheatley), Meg 2 already left an easy runway. The finale brings the chaos to Fun Island after a rupture lets trench creatures reach the surface, including three Megs, snappers, and a giant octopus. By the end, the villains are gone, Jonas and the core survivors make it out, and the last beat even floats the idea that Haiqi might be pregnant, which is about as clean a sequel breadcrumb as this franchise needs.
Still, the funny thing about The Meg brand is that it does not need a complicated pitch to justify a third movie anyway. If the hook is Statham on a beach staring down another prehistoric sea monster, most people buying tickets know exactly what they are signing up for. Now we just have to wait and see if the studio is interested in another round, too.
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