'San Andreas 2' Is On The Way, Will Hopefully Allow The Rock To Finally Punch An Earthquake

If Dwayne Johnson stops working, the magical spell that powers him will wear off and he'll shrivel into a broken husk of a man, forced to wander the earth as a painfully ordinary human without superhuman charisma or a muscular build torn straight out of ancient myth. It's the only way to explain his current schedule, which has him working non-stop for the foreseeable future.

It's also the only way to really explain the newly announced San Andreas 2, which will see Hollywood's most likable guy returning to one of his more shrug-worthy movies. The sequel will once again find Johnson facing down a seismic catastrophe, but the scope will be a bit more global. And maybe, just maybe, we'll actually get a scene where The Rock stops an earthquake by literally punching the ground. Fingers crossed.

The news of the sequel's development was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. Relative newcomers Neil Widener and Gavin James have been tasked with writing the screenplay (Carlton Cuse penned the first film), but the rest of the cast and crew will be a big reunion. Director Brad Peyton, who is set to direct Johnson in Rampage later this year, will be back behind the camera, as will producer Beau Flynn. In front of the camera, Johnson will be once again joined by Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, and Paul Giamatti, once again playing the wife, the daughter, and the seismologist no one heeds until it's too late.

Exact details of the sequel's plot remain under wraps, but THR does suggest a bigger scale for the sequel that will transport Johnson away from the west coast of the United States:

Plot details for the new installment are being sheltered but the sequel is expanding the disaster locales by going global, focusing on the infamous Ring of Fire. The ring circles the Pacific Ocean with fault lines and volcanoes and according to scientists is home to about 90 percent of the worlds' earthquakes.

Since Johnson played the Worst Helicopter Rescue Pilot Ever in the first film (seriously, he literally goes AWOL and steals a chopper to save his family in the middle of a crisis), I can't wait to see how San Andreas 2 will find new and exciting ways for this guy to be terrible at his job. And then Johnson will smile and his muscles will burst out of his shirt and everyone will be reminded of why we love this guy even when the movies around him don't quite hold up to scrutiny.

There is no release date set for San Andreas 2, but there will still be plenty of Dwayne Johnson to be found at the multiplex. Central Intelligence, Baywatch, Rampage, and Fast 8 are all coming out within the next two years or so. Expect a 2018 or 2019 date to be announced for this one...unless something goes wrong, which would be terribly appropriate for a disaster movie.