Although it’s been heavily speculated for many years now, it looks like we’re finally getting Twister 2. That is, a follow-up to 1996’s Twister, Jan de Bont’s enormously successful blockbuster about storm-chasers that still enjoys a reasonably solid cult following. Officially titled Twisters, the new movie has been confirmed by Universal Pictures for a release date of July 19, 2024, although the cast for the Twister sequel is yet to be confirmed.
Twister lead Bill Paxton obviously won’t be in it given that he sadly passed away in 2017. The same goes for co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in 2014. That leaves Helen Hunt if Twisters has any hope for a solid connection with the original film. The 59-year-old actor is already strongly rumoured to reprise her role as Dr Jo Harding, but it has reportedly not been confirmed whether or not she has accepted the offer from producer Frank Marshall (Indiana Jones).
According to Movieweb, Minari director Lee Isaac Chung will be coming on board to direct the Twister sequel while the screenplay will be handled by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant). These aren’t throwaway names, so clearly Universal Pictures has some confidence Twisters can match the success of the first film, considering it’s been released in the same window as the animated Transformers movie, Transformers: A New Generation, and Marvel’s Thunderbolts.
Variety confirmed the rumours of a Twister sequel just a few days ago, citing the current Universal Pictures release schedule which lists Twisters for July 2024.
In all likelihood, we’ll end up seeing some delays given the film is still in its nascent period, but at least we know that, 28 years after the first film stormed up the Box Office charts, the only movie ever made about people crazy enough to chase storms will finally receive a follow-up.
Twisters has been in the works since 2020 but any plot details are yet to be revealed. The only indication we have of this new film being connected to the original comes in the form of a tagline from Universal, stating it will be a “new chapter from the 1996 movie.”
Legacy sequels have been big business in Hollywood lately, but only time will tell if Twisters is an F2 at the box office or an F5. After all: the original pulled in just under $500 million against a $92 million budget, making it the second-highest-grossing movie that year.
We’ll update this article once more details are released about the Twister sequel ahead of its July 2024 release date.
