World War Z 2 is still alive — but the director won’t shoot until the script is right

Here we go again: the long-mooted World War Z 2 has still not bitten the dust, but don't hold your breath for Brad Pitt to be sprinting from zombies any time this year. Director Edward Berger has piped up about the sequel's prospects, and as much as you might want to get carried away, his update is about as cautious as they come.

Speaking with Screen Off Script, Berger explained his priorities with the sequel: "It could be. It could be. If we get the script right. We're working on it, we're working hard on it. We don't want to disappoint the fans. We only want to bring something to the fans and to this idea that really furthers the story and the movie and really creates something new and can say something about our time. That's definitely a commercial big film, you know, and we'd love to bring it to the screen."

The Sequel That Barely Exists

If you've lost track (and who could blame you), the original World War Z landed back in 2013, with Brad Pitt running around as ex-UN investigator Gerry Lane. It pulled in more than $540 million worldwide, which sounds like an obvious franchise starter – but after a decade of false starts, here we are. J.A. Bayona was on board to direct at one point and bailed; David Fincher signed up for a version that collapsed under its own budget ambition. Now it's Edward Berger in the big chair, with Dennis Kelly handling the script.

$540 million at the worldwide box office, and we still haven't seen a sequel.

Just so it's clear, Pitt is still attached to reprise his role as Gerry, and the plot will presumably have to pick up from where the last film left off – with the big twist that survivors who got a certain vaccine could walk among zombies unnoticed. Whether Berger leans straight into that or chucks it out the window, nobody is saying yet. The point is: there's no script Berger likes enough to film, so any proper pre-production is still in limbo.

Berger: The Man Behind the Camera

If Berger's name doesn't ring any bells, he's been neck-deep in prestige drama for years. German films like Jack (2014) and All My Loving (2019) are on his CV, along with telly like Deutschland 83, The Terror, and Patrick Melrose. The breakthrough? His adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), which hoovered up four Oscars including Best International Feature Film. Since then he's done the Vatican thriller Conclave (with Ralph Fiennes in 2024) and The Ballad of a Small Player (Colin Farrell, 2025). Oh, and he's supposed to direct the next Bourne film as well. So if you were worried the zombie sequel would be handed to someone green, not an issue here.

• World War Z 2 has cycled through at least three directors, with Berger only the latest in a long queue.
• Brad Pitt is still locked in to star, reprising the role of Gerry Lane from the original.
• Dennis Kelly, who created Utopia, is writing the latest version of the screenplay.
• Berger's previous films span gritty German drama and big international productions, so he's no stranger to a challenge.

Until a script turns up that Berger is happy with, World War Z 2 remains more promise than project. If it ever gets greenlit, you'll likely be first to know, but for now, back to the waiting game.