Director Neil Marshall made one of the all-time coolest werewolf movies with his 2002 film Dog Soldiers (watch it HERE), so it’s shocking that we’ve never gotten a sequel… especially considering we’re living in a world where An American Werewolf in Paris exists, and there have been eight Howling movies. A few years ago, Marshall said there was “more of a chance” of the sequel happening than ever before… but in a new interview with Inverse, he gave a disappointing update, saying he fears that Dog Soldiers 2 is dead in the water.
When asked for a status update on Dog Soldiers 2, Marshall told Inverse, “I’ve a feeling it’s probably dead in the water because things have gone very quiet from the other side. I’m not giving up, though; there’s still a possibility. We’ve been trying to get it off the ground for the past six years. I’ve got a story hammered out, but I’ve not written the script yet because I want to know if we’re actually making it or not first. It’s a good idea, and I know Kevin McKidd (who played Cooper in the first film) is on board, but everything has gone very quiet and we don’t know why. We’ll see. I can’t live my life waiting to see if it does happen. If it happens, it happens. It’s always going to be a double-edged sword, though. The fans want it, and I’d love to give it to them, but if I make a mess of it, they’re not going to thank me. The most important thing is making sure that it lives up to the first one. That’s the hardest part.“
There have been rumors and premature announcements about a sequel to Dog Soldiers ever since the film made its debut in 2002. Oddly, for several years the plans for a sequel never seemed to involve Marshall, despite the fact that he 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. In 2020, the sequel talks finally circled back to Marshall… but now we find that he’s having trouble getting a follow-up off the ground as well.
Over the years, we’ve heard of potential storylines involving a squad of U.S. soldiers that are also werewolves, Cooper being institutionalized, and werewolf clones. Inverse asked if any of those ideas would make it into his Dog Soldiers 2 if it were to happen, and he replied, “The thing about cloning was something that I was toying with a while ago, but it never amounted to anything. The idea of the American soldiers was something that the producers of the film were pursuing. They tried to get it made as Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat. That never happened, and it’s a good thing too because it wasn’t a very good idea. The other one was an idea I toyed with a long time ago too. The new concept for the story is fresh and acknowledges that 20 years have passed. The story is set in a confined setting but a bigger one than the first film.“
Here’s hoping the sequel talks will resume soon so we’ll finally have the chance to see Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers 2.
Dog Soldiers has the following synopsis:
A group of soldiers dispatched to the Scottish Highlands on special training maneuvers face their biggest fears after they run into Captain Ryan – the only survivor of a Special Ops team that was literally torn to pieces. Ryan refuses to disclose his mission even though whoever attacked his men might be hungry for seconds. Help arrives in the form of a local woman who shelters them in a deserted farmhouse deep in the forest … but when they realize that they are surrounded by a pack of blood-lusting werewolves, it’s apparent their nightmare has just begun!
The film stars Kevin McKidd (Rome), Sean Pertwee (Event Horizon), Emma Cleasby (Doomsday), and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones).
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