Primitive War Has Multiple Potential Sequels, According To Director Luke Sparke [Exclusive]
One of the biggest cinematic surprises of 2025 was director Luke Sparke's "Primitive War." Produced independently yet sacrificing nothing in terms of scale, it delivered blockbuster dinosaur action for the catering budget of a superhero movie. Sparke has already announced "Primitive War 2," but the franchise may well expand beyond a single sequel.
Sparke only just released the trailer for "Dinosaurs of the Wild West," which takes things in an unexpected new direction. The series will unite humans and dinosaurs in the old West, but it isn't a follow-up to "Primitive War." It's something else entirely. In honor of the launch of the Kickstarter campaign to fund that series, I had the opportunity to speak with Sparke.
During the conversation, we talked about his planned "Primitive War" sequel and how that's been evolving behind the scenes. As Sparke explained, he and the gang at Sparke Films have developed multiple potential sequels within the franchise. Here's what he had to say about it:
"For 'Primitive War,' I've got multiple sequels now. I've spent the time mapping out where the story's going to go, and rather than just jumping one at a time, I've actually mapped it out. So, we've actually got a few scripts sitting on the bench with multiple actors and multiple things happening in that."
"Primitive War" essentially answers the question: What if "Jurassic Park" was a Vietnam War movie? It centers on a military recon unit during the Vietnam War as they venture into an isolated jungle valley in search of a missing platoon. Before long, though, they find themselves in a fight for their lives with deadly prehistoric dinosaurs.
Primitive War's sequels won't fall into the bigger equals better trap
"Primitive War" is based on Ethan Pettus' novel series of the same name. While Luke Sparke didn't say much in terms of what these "Primitive War" sequels will look like, specifically, he did mention that the various stories that have been developed don't necessarily lend themselves to a straight-up trilogy or anything like that.
"There's definitely a little bit of non-linear. There's a couple that could shift," Sparke said. "There's a couple that are definitely like, this must happen after X film, but there's still through lines of each one. Each one might have a cameo from someone from the first one. It all kind of comes back to the first one, but it might be different timelines that might be the same timeline happening at the same time, and he's over here, and she's over there or whatever."
Sparke also confirmed that "Dinosaurs of the Wild West" won't take the place of "Primitive War 2," making it clear that both projects can co-exist. The filmmaker added that he wants to come up "with interesting ways to go back into that world." Basically, he doesn't want to fall into the typical sequel trap, which is assuming that bigger is better. Per Sparke:
"I'd hate just to go back and go bigger is better sequel. And then suddenly you burn out on that, which is what happens a lot with franchises. It suddenly just goes, next one has to be bigger. Then, by the time it gets to the third one, you're like, this is just ridiculous."
Producers are facing lots of challenges making movies today, particularly in the independent space. Sparke is in an especially challenging position trying to make blockbuster-scale entertainment on a tight budget.
When can we expect to see Primitive War 2?
Going bigger, in that case, only further complicates matters. Luke Sparke made "Primitive War" for a shockingly low budget of less than $10 million. Anyone who has seen the movie and knows anything at all about movie budgets will probably be surprised by that fact. But that also makes it important for Sparke to have some flexibility in terms of the direction of the future of the franchise.
For the filmmaker, the viral success that "Primitive War" achieved isn't something that he takes lightly. As a result, he doesn't want to rush the sequel to market and compromise the final product. That's why they pumped the brakes earlier this year rather than rush into production. As he told me:
"I would hate to just rush 'Primitive War 2' in. And there was a time this year that we were about to go on 'Primitive War 2' on one of the scripts and then we were like, 'Are we just doing it to do it? Are all the pieces right? Should we wait for the right moment?' So, again, there's all those conversations that happen every day. So, it's definitely very close. It's sitting right there, and I'd love to do it this year to release it next year or early 2028, is kind of the plan."
Not that anyone wants to wait an overly long time between sequels, but it's nice when a director takes time to truly consider what to do with a franchise, rather than rush something just because it might make some sort of financial sense to do so. Fans, for the time being, will have to exercise some patience.