J.A. Bayona on why he dropped out of World War Z 2

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Despite it's troubled production, which included a complete rewrite/reshoot of film's third act, WORLD WAR Z proved to be quite the success, so naturally Paramount got the ball rolling on a sequel. However, that sequel has had its own troubles as it's remained in development hell for five years. Once upon a time, JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM director J.A. Bayona was slated to take the helm of the WORLD WAR Z sequel, but several years later, he would drop out, with Paramount saying "Because of pre-existing film commitments, Bayona is not able to make World War Z this year, and it is our ambition to do so. He is a wonderful director, and we hope to work with him soon." Bayona would go on to direct another franchise sequel, but he recently commented on just why he walked away from WORLD WAR Z while speaking with Den of Geek.

"We were working on that project for around a year, and we had a great idea," Bayona said. "We were very excited. We designed great set pieces, and we were very excited with the direction we were taking with the film, but somehow, we never found a way to connect it all together." Despite the film not being entirely ready, Paramount nonetheless wanted J.A. Bayona to go ahead (did they learn nothing from the first film?), which Bayona wasn't about to do.

There was a moment where we were about to start production, and I wasn't ready. I told them and I said, 'Listen, I'm not the right guy for this. There's probably another guy who's able to take care of this in a way that the movie will not get affected,' so I decided to step out of the project.

David Fincher came onboard to take the helm of the WORLD WAR Z sequel last year, but with Brad Pitt currently starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD and Fincher electing to focus on the second season of Netflix's Mindhunter, we're likely still a ways off from more stampeding zombie action. J.A. Bayona did say that he recently had a conversation with those involved with the sequel and teased that they're "very excited" about it. Yay?

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray.