David Fincher's 'World War Z 2' Is Officially Dead And Buried

We all had a hard time believing David Fincher would direct World War Z 2, and now, it's not even happening. Fincher has been working on the project since at least 2016, but constant scheduling delays may have finally delivered a head shot to the project once and for all. While there's always a chance a World War Z sequel will rise from the grave some day, as of now, the Fincher version is dead and buried.

The Playlist broke the news about the cancellation of World War Z 2. Per their story, "Paramount simply dragged their heels, at one point eyeing a 2018 or 2019 summer release dates, but never bold enough to put it back on the schedule." The film "had been staffing up for a lengthy shoot this year, five different countries and a six-month shoot in Atlanta, which is why various tracking companies like Production Weekly had been listing it lately... but...simply never received its green light, and none of these hires were officially made."

The first World War Z, which was a very lose adaptation of Max Brooks' excellent novel, hit theaters in 2013, directed by Marc Forster and starring Brad Pitt. In the movie, "former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane (Pitt) and his family get stuck in urban gridlock, he senses that it's no ordinary traffic jam. His suspicions are confirmed when, suddenly, the city erupts into chaos. A lethal virus, spread through a single bite, is turning healthy people into something vicious, unthinking and feral. As the pandemic threatens to consume humanity, Gerry leads a worldwide search to find the source of the infection and, with luck, a way to halt its spread."

The production was plagued with problems, running over budget in the process. Despite all this, the movie was a box office hit, with a worldwide box office haul of $540 million.

J.A. Bayona was originally hired to helm a sequel, but left due to creative differences. At this point, Pitt turned to frequent collaborator Fincher. It seemed strange that Fincher would helm a blockbuster sequel, but the director came aboard the project in 2016, and got to work. Fincher brought in Dennis Kelly to rewrite a script originally by Steven Knight. Since then, the project has remained on the periphery, with very few updates.

World War Z 2 was supposed to finally start shooting this summer, but Fincher has been working on his Netflix series Mindhunter in the meantime, which probably should've been a hint that this was coming. In all honesty, I'm fine with this. While I would've liked to see David Fincher direct a zombie movie, I'd much rather see him move on to make something else. He hasn't helmed a movie since 2014's Gone Girl, and hopefully he can start working on something else now.