Back in 2013, World War Z and The Last of Us hit their respective markets within the space of a single week, with The Last of Us beating the Brad Pitt-faced zombie flick to the post by just a few days. It was recently revealed in an interview with David Fincher – who was lined up to direct the canned sequel to World War Z – that the follow-up movie would have been like The Last of Us.
You know, before The Last of Us was like The Last of Us.
Taking on the Titan
Today, The Last of Us is considered a titan of the post-apocalyptic genre. It’s a franchise that has spawned two hugely award-winning games and a record-breaking television series – plus books, comics, and a global cult following.
That’s one of the reasons why David Fincher admitted that the World War Z sequel never arrived — there just wasn’t enough meat on the bones of the universe. When interviewed by GQ, Fincher explained what ‘World War Z 2’ would have been like:
Well, it was a little like The Last of Us. 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.
For the unaware, World War Z (2013) was based on a book of the same name — but it adopted a completely different premise. In the book, the unfolding apocalypse is detailed from the perspective of several characters around the world, but in the movie, it was all told from the perspective of Brad Pitt’s character.
Given how World War Z (2013) ended, it’s hard to see how the universe could have become anything like The Last of Us’ setting, but regardless of how it would have played out, it just wasn’t to be. The first film was a commercial success, but according to an article published earlier this year in Collider, it was stressed that the sequel was also plagued by scheduling conflicts and an exorbitant budget that was never realised.
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