After the success of the first film, Greenland 2 director Ric Roman Waugh is teasing how the Gerard Butler-led sequel is taking a Dune-like approach to its story. Butler starred in the original film as a structural engineer who raced against time to get his wife and son to an emergency shelter in the eponymous country to survive a comet set to cause an exctinction-level event. Scoring generally favorable reviews and strong box office and VOD returns, a sequel was announced a few months later, tentatively titled Greenland: Migration.
While speaking exlcusively with Screen Rant for his action-thriller Kandahar, Ric Roman Waugh looked ahead to his next collaboration with star Gerard Butler on Greenland 2. The director teased bringing a Dune-like approach to the sequel’s story, with the next film serving as a “continuation” of the first movie’s plot and expressing his excitement for the next chapter. See what Waugh shared below:
Yes, we are still talking about the sequel to Greenland which, to me, is one of my favorite movies to work on, because it isn’t a sequel, per se. It is a continuation of the first story. It’s kind of like the way they had the money to make Dune in two parts. What I love about the way we’re going to do Greenland is the first movie was all up to the extinction event, the second movie will be what happened afterwards. Who survived, and how do they keep going when all the resources were depleted, and the world put in disarray? So, it’s going to be a great exploration in our own kind of creative way of going, “What happened when the dinosaurs were extinct? What happened in our extinction period, and what happened to the Earth and humanity after?”
How Greenland 2 Is Breaking New Ground For Disaster Movies
In addition to Waugh, Greenland: Migration is expected to see the returns of stars Butler, Morena Baccarin and Roger Dale Floyd, with the sequel said to focus on the family as they venture across a frozen European wasteland to find other survivors of the comet and a new home to build for themselves. While production was initially eyeing a late 2022 start, Waugh’s comments above seem to indicate the next Greenland installment has yet to begin shooting, though it’s unclear the reasoning for this delay.
Regardless of when the film gets off the ground, Greenland: Migration is set to break new ground for the disaster movie genre by being one of the first sincere sequels of the genre. While occasional follow-ups have been produced in the past, the majority of them have been more self-aware or comedic efforts rather than dramatic projects, some examples including the Airplane and Sharknado franchises, as well as the Airport sequels on which the former parodies.
While there is currently a Twister sequel in the works and a San Andreas follow-up languishing in development hell, Greenland: Migration is poised to be a game-changer for disaster movies going forward in actually exploring the aftermath of the first film’s devastating events. Given the possibility of expanding the scope and scale with the next chapter and setting up other stories, and a surprisingly modest bar set by its predecessor, it may be better for the Greenland sequel to take its time, making its way to screens.
