Warner Bros. Pictures debuted the teaser for their upcoming shark attack sequel “Meg 2: The Trench” during CinemaCon. This will be a follow-up to the 2018 film “The Meg” starring Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, and Rainn Wilson. The film, which is based on “The Meg” series of books by Steve Alten, follows a group of scientists exploring the Marianas Trench, who encounter and attempt to defeat the largest marine predator that ever existed, Megalodon.
The footage from the trailer already shows some serious promise of catching the same magic as the first film. The sequel at least seems to be keeping the tongue-in-cheek tone. The footage opens with two prehistoric monsters eating a large bug. While text onscreen warns that for “65 million years one species ruled the world.” We then see a Megalodon eat a T-rex because this movie knows what we came here to see. Unnecessarily large dinosaurs, doing things that show how unnecessarily large they are!
The original film earned $530 million globally, making it one of highest grossing monster movies It is beaten out only by “Kong: Skull Island” which made $569 million in 2017, and the various “Jurassic Park” films. But so far it is the only big-budget Hollywood/Chinese co-produced monster movie that has been a success on both shores. Now, “Meg 2” seeks to keep that legacy going.
“Meg 2” will follow Jonas Taylor (Statham) being recruited again by Mac (Cliff Curtis) to hunt another giant creature in the trench. But once they get deep underwater, the team starts getting picked off one by one. By, you guessed it, an even bigger meg than the first film! We then see various monsters attacking by land and sea, with Taylor almost getting eaten by a shark. But the chaos is not just central to our monster-hunting team. We also see tourists almost getting eaten, and a tentacled creature eating a helicopter. The teaser ends with Taylor jumping into the air on a jetski to face off against a shark with a sword.
“The Meg” was directed by Jon Turteltaub, but the sequel will be directed by Ben Wheatley. The new film will also pair Statham with Wu Ching (“Wolf Warrior II”), one of China’s biggest movie stars.
“Meg 2: The Trench” will hit theaters on August 4th, 2023. The teaser has not been released to the public yet. We’ll keep you posted on updates about the project as they develop.
