After spending about three years spinning its wheels in development limbo, Wanted 2 got a push in the right direction last fall, as Universal officially tapped the writers of the first film to start work on a new draft of the script for the sequel.
Early plot details included a jump forward in time, the jettisoning of many characters and plot-points from the first film (as is necessary, given how much was resolved) – and the fortunate decision to leave Angelina Jolie’s character, Fox, in the grave, instead of bringing her back to life – as was the plan before Jolie walked away from the film.
Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov has another big, crazy action-movie adaptation coming out this summer: the supernatural thriller/historical revisionist tale, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. While doing press for that film, Bekmambetov is naturally also fielding questions about the status of Wanted 2, and The Playlist took the opportunity to get a nice, juicy update on a lot of the points already discussed above, and then some.
According to Bekmambetov (courtesy of The Playlist):
“An unbelievable thing happened three weeks ago… Because we stopped, we didn’t know what to do for three or four years. Three weeks ago I came up with a great idea and I pitched this idea and everybody fell in love with it. And now I think we’re on track. Right now the writer is working on the script, and it will be shocking.”
“It’s a continuation of the story, with Wesley Gibson… Other people are dead, you know, we can’t bring them back. The story is the same character, same mythology, but it’s got a great twist.”
Adding to that description (which is, admittedly, still pretty vague), we have had previous word from Wanted 2 co-writer Derek Haas that the sequel would turn the mantra of the assassin’s guild known as The Fraternity (“Kill one, save a thousand”) on its head, and we could see some of the other fraternities – which appear in the source comic book by Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar.
As for what young wimp-turned-super-assassin Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) has been up to since he basically wiped out his entire chapter of The Fraternity – or how that inverted mantra “Kill a thousand, save one” will come into play – or what “shocks” and “twists” Bekmambetov is envisioning, all remain to be seen. Though, we do expect to see more information trickle out, as the press tour for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter continues.
Stay tuned for more Wanted 2 news in the near future.
