It’s been close to a year since director Frant Gwo signaled a sequel to his 2019 blockbuster hit, The Wandering Earth, based on a classic sci-fi novella by Liu Cixin about the global coalition to engineer Earth to travel to a new solar system away from the deteriorating sun.
With prelim teaser art already making the rounds, reports are now confirming with an official release date stamped for Chinese New Years Day on Sunday, January 22, 2023, and with statementsfrom Gwo himself, and producer Gong Ge’er, who are both returning in the same capacity.
“After two years of pre-production and thinking about the script, we’ve decided to initiate our shooting plan for ‘The Wandering Earth 2,’ and at the same time have set our release date for New Year’s Day 2023,” said Gwo at this year’s Golden Rooster Film Festival. “Next, we will try to begin new production processes, and will involve more new technologies.”
The report from Variety’s Rebecca Davis on Wednesday also notes the possible return of actor Wu Jing who starred in the previous film as Liu Peiqiang, an astronaut whose mission to help navigate Earth forces him to contend with a defiant A.I. system while trying to assist the humans on Earth. The story partly follows the underlying drama spanning ten years as Liu comes to grips with his wayward son, Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) who eventually joins in the effort to help restart the Earth when a key engine shuts down.
“The preparation work for ‘The Wandering Earth 2’ has already been ongoing for some time. We have created a new world full of science fiction elements and are looking forward to audiences discovering new, better plots and more details,” Gong said at the festival.
Cixin will supervise once more on the project with backing by China Film Group, whose vice chairman Fu Ruoqing says, “‘The Wandering Earth 2’ will explore ways of streamlining and standardizing production that hopefully will make films get better and better.”
Plot and further casting details for the sequel are unknown.
Wu, whose recent credits include Wolf Warrior 2 and The Climbers, is currently tapped to star alongside Guardians Of The Galaxy actor Chris Pratt in a relaunch of Ken Ochiai’s hit action comedy, Saigon Bodyguards, for Universal Pictures.
More at Variety.