Ric Roman Waugh didn’t plan on making Greenland 2: Migration. “We by no means thought there’d be a second film,” the director of 2020’s Greenland and its 2026 sequel tells Polygon. “There by no means was purported to be one.”
In spite of everything, how will you comply with a film concerning the literal finish of the world? Most filmmakers may see the apocalypse as an impediment to put in writing round or retcon, however Waugh was decided to honor the plot of Greenland, wherein engineer John Garrity (Gerard Butler) races throughout America to avoid wasting his household from an Earth-ending meteor by bringing them to a army bunker on the eponymous Denmark-owned island.
“We did not bullshit you,” Waugh says. “In most films, they cease the comet and no one will get damage. We destroyed the Earth. It occurred. And so we needed to be unflinching with the second film.”
So what modified? For one factor, Greenland grew to become an surprising hit. It was launched in Dec. 2020, smack dab in the course of COVID pandemic, so a deliberate theatrical launch as an alternative grew to become a muted VOD dump.
“You shoot this film, then COVID hits, and you are going, ‘Oh my God, now I’ve a catastrophe film in the course of an actual catastrophe,’” Waugh remembers.
The timing ended up figuring out within the movie’s favor, although. When Greenland hit HBO Max in 2021, it grew to become a sleeper success. Audiences embraced the film, whereas Waugh and screenwriter Chris Sparling began eager about how they may probably make a sequel.
Picture: Lionsgate
The answer they got here up with was to go straight by the apocalypse and picture what would come subsequent. Greenland 2: Migration is a post-apocalyptic thriller wherein Garrity takes his spouse Allison (Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (recast as Roman Griffin Davis) on one more epic journey searching for a brand new residence after their bunker turns into inhospitable. Alongside the best way, they uncover a world modified dramatically by the meteor: flooded cities, unpredictable climate, and the collapse of society and the protections that include it.
Greenland 2: Migration generally looks like The Final of Us with out zombies: The actual enemy right here is another human Garrity and his household meet alongside the facet of the street. However Waugh compares it to a different post-apocalyptic basic.
“I like Youngsters of Males,” he says. “You are coping with an actual dystopian world, but it surely’s concerning the folks inside it and what human beings are able to — what we do to at least one one other. That is my favourite factor about this franchise. It has no bearing on what the catastrophe is. This comet may very well be a pandemic. It may very well be something. It is actually about how human beings are towards each other.”
Picture: Lionsgate/Everett Assortment
That sounds bleak, however Greenland: Migration additionally has loads of optimism baked into its story. Alongside their journey, the Garrity clan meet loads of pleasant faces determined to assist in any means they’ll — together with numerous determined folks desperate to kill the household and steal what little they’ve left. In the end, Waugh isn’t attempting to cross judgement both means. All of us simply went by a real-life apocalyptic occasion in COVID-19, and the director’s hope right here is to easily give the viewers one thing to consider after the film ends.
“There have been quite a lot of ethical questions I needed to entertain,” Waugh says. “My job as a filmmaker is to not reply these questions. It’s simply to point out conditions, warts and all, and allow us to have a dialog about them.”
Greenland 2: Migration releases in theaters on Jan. 9.
