Paramount has officially confirmed a World War Z sequel is in the works.
Confirmation comes from CinemaCon 2026, where Paramount executives also announced Top Gun 3, Call of Duty, and new installments of Star Trek, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. No other information was shared.
As of last year, Paramount was reported to have three franchises it planned to prioritize when it came to movies: Top Gun 3, Star Trek, and World War Z. The mention of World War Z came as something of a surprise, given it had been over a decade since the Brad Pitt zombie film came out. Now, though, we have confirmation it’s actually moving forward.
In September, Tim Willits, development chief at Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 studio Saber Interactive, told IGN that he believed the popularity of its World War Z video game helped convince executives at Paramount to greenlight the sequel.
“30 million people have played that game. Isn't that crazy? 30 million unique people,” Willits said. “They have not told me this — I'll probably get in trouble! — they have not told me this, but maybe IGN put this on Instagram, that there's talk at Paramount about making another World War Z. Again, they have not told me this, but I'm pretty sure it’s because of that game.
“They have not told me this. I'm guessing!” Willits continued. “30 million people. That's f***ing ridiculous! I saw that [the Paramount news] and I was like, ‘Oh that’s gotta be us.’”
This isn't the first effort to make World War Z 2 a reality. World War Z was a commercial success upon its release in 2013, grossing over $540 million worldwide at the box office (it was Pitt's highest-grossing film before the recently released F1 movie overtook it). Paramount confirmed plans to make a sequel shortly after, but then Marc Foster, director of the first film, announced that he would not be returning to helm the follow-up.
There was a further shake-up that resulted in David Fincher signing on as J.A. Bayona's replacement in the director's chair. However, the sequel never pulled together as Paramount decided to halt pre-production in 2019, reportedly due to budget issues and a lack of momentum, even though production was supposed to begin that year.
In 2023, Fincher likened his scrapped World War Z sequel to HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation, saying he was glad his movie didn't make it beyond pre-production. Fincher told GQ that there were some notable similarities between his Brad Pitt-fronted follow-up film to World War Z and the HBO adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, so much so that he was left feeling happy his project never came together because he felt the other had "more real estate" to tackle the same topics.
"It was a little like The Last of Us," Fincher said, teasing what he had planned for the World War Z sequel. "I'm glad that we didn't do what we were doing because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff. In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite... they used it in their title sequence and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show."
The question for fans of World War Z the movie is of course whether Pitt would return for a potential sequel, or if Paramount would go for a brand new cast.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
