There have been rumors and premature announcements about a sequel to DOG SOLDIERS (buy it HERE) ever since the film made its debut in 2002. Oddly, the plans for a sequel never seemed to involve DOG SOLDIERS director Neil Marshall, despite the fact that Marshall had ideas for a trilogy. A screenplay for a sequel was written (not by Marshall), the project passed through the hands of directors Andy Armstrong, M.J. Bassett, and Rob Green, but the film – referred to as DOG SOLDIERS: FRESH MEAT – never made it into production. Later, there was an attempt to make a web series called DOG SOLDIERS: LEGACY. It didn't pan out any better than FRESH MEAT did. On the recent Blu-ray release, Marshall said, "I think I can fairly safely say that there’s never going to be a sequel now."
Thankfully, something has changed in the last few years. Speaking with Den of Geek, Marshall actually sounded hopeful that a sequel could happen – and with his involvement!
There's more of a chance now than ever before. There’s things in the works and we’re seeing what we can do. Certainly, myself and [DOG SOLDIERS star] Kevin McKidd and [DOG SOLDIERS producer] Chris Figg are up for it to revisit this world. Over the past 18 years the question I get asked pretty much more than anything else is, 'When are we going to get Dog Soldiers 2?' Part of me thinks I'd like to go back and re-visit that world somehow. And if Kev's up for it, then that would make it worthwhile for sure. So we'll see. You never know."
McKidd, who played lead character Cooper, certainly sounds like he's up for it. He confirmed that he and Marshall have been talking about a sequel, and he even has an idea for what it could be about:
I think it could be fun again to revisit that character, 18 years on. We keep throwing around ideas of Cooper and the mental institution and he's been locked up because he spent 18 years screaming and shouting that there’re werewolves in the woods, and sure enough they come back one day, and the marshals come and knock on his cell door and say, 'We need your help.'"
Sounds like a good enough set-up for a sequel to me. Let's get this thing rolling!
Den of Geek also contacted McKidd's DOG SOLDIERS co-star Sean Pertwee, who gave details on what Marshall's trilogy would have been about:
The second one was [about] the science of creating Dog Soldiers. The special ops come in and they do the scrape with [werewolf] DNA and they grow it in tubes and in the final film, we were to become Dog Soldiers, half men, half lycanthrope, which I thought would have been so super cool and we were all very excited by it."
Maybe this trilogy will finally happen, about twenty years later than originally expected.
While we wait to see whether or not Marshall will get to make DOG SOLDIERS 2, he's developing a film called THE LAIR, which will have soldiers facing off with monsters of a different sort. You can read the details on that HERE.