One of many largest cinematic surprises of 2025 was director Luke Sparke’s “Primitive Warfare.” Produced independently but sacrificing nothing by way of scale, it delivered blockbuster dinosaur motion for the catering price range of a superhero film. Sparke has already introduced “Primitive Warfare 2,” however the franchise might effectively develop past a single sequel.
Sparke solely simply launched the trailer for “Dinosaurs of the Wild West,” which takes issues in an sudden new course. The sequence will unite people and dinosaurs within the previous West, but it surely is not a follow-up to “Primitive Warfare.” It is one thing else solely. In honor of the launch of the Kickstarter marketing campaign to fund that sequence, I had the chance to talk with Sparke.
Throughout the dialog, we talked about his deliberate “Primitive Warfare” sequel and the way that is been evolving behind the scenes. As Sparke defined, he and the gang at Sparke Movies have developed a number of potential sequels throughout the franchise. Here is what he needed to say about it:
“For ‘Primitive Warfare,’ I’ve acquired a number of sequels now. I’ve spent the time mapping out the place the story’s going to go, and fairly than simply leaping separately, I’ve truly mapped it out. So, we have truly acquired a couple of scripts sitting on the bench with a number of actors and a number of issues taking place in that.”
“Primitive Warfare” primarily solutions the query: What if “Jurassic Park” was a Vietnam Warfare film? It facilities on a navy recon unit throughout the Vietnam Warfare as they enterprise into an remoted jungle valley looking for a lacking platoon. Earlier than lengthy, although, they discover themselves in a battle for his or her lives with lethal prehistoric dinosaurs.
Primitive Warfare’s sequels will not fall into the larger equals higher entice
“Primitive Warfare” is predicated on Ethan Pettus’ novel sequence of the identical title. Whereas Luke Sparke did not say a lot by way of what these “Primitive Warfare” sequels will seem like, particularly, he did point out that the assorted tales which have been developed do not essentially lend themselves to a straight-up trilogy or something like that.
“There’s positively a bit of little bit of non-linear. There is a couple that would shift,” Sparke stated. “There is a couple which can be positively like, this should occur after X movie, however there’s nonetheless by way of traces of every one. Each might need a cameo from somebody from the primary one. All of it sort of comes again to the primary one, but it surely could be completely different timelines that could be the identical timeline taking place on the similar time, and he is over right here, and she or he’s over there or no matter.”
Sparke additionally confirmed that “Dinosaurs of the Wild West” will not take the place of “Primitive Warfare 2,” making it clear that each tasks can co-exist. The filmmaker added that he desires to come back up “with attention-grabbing methods to return into that world.” Principally, he does not wish to fall into the standard sequel entice, which is assuming that greater is best. Per Sparke:
“I might hate simply to return and go greater is best sequel. After which all of a sudden you burn out on that, which is what occurs quite a bit with franchises. It all of a sudden simply goes, subsequent one must be greater. Then, by the point it will get to the third one, you are like, that is simply ridiculous.”
Producers are going through a lot of challenges making motion pictures at this time, notably within the unbiased house. Sparke is in an particularly difficult place making an attempt to make blockbuster-scale leisure on a good price range.Â
When can we anticipate to see Primitive Warfare 2?
Going greater, in that case, solely additional complicates issues. Luke Sparke made “Primitive Warfare” for an incredibly low price range of lower than $10 million. Anybody who has seen the film and is aware of something in any respect about film budgets will most likely be stunned by that truth. However that additionally makes it essential for Sparke to have some flexibility by way of the course of the way forward for the franchise.
For the filmmaker, the viral success that “Primitive Warfare” achieved is not one thing that he takes calmly. Because of this, he does not wish to rush the sequel to market and compromise the ultimate product. That is why they pumped the brakes earlier this yr fairly than rush into manufacturing. As he instructed me:
“I might hate to only rush ‘Primitive Warfare 2’ in. And there was a time this yr that we had been about to go on ‘Primitive Warfare 2’ on one of many scripts after which we had been like, ‘Are we simply doing it to do it? Are all of the items proper? Ought to we look forward to the fitting second?’ So, once more, there’s all these conversations that occur daily. So, it is positively very shut. It is sitting proper there, and I might like to do it this yr to launch it subsequent yr or early 2028, is sort of the plan.”
Not that anybody desires to attend an excessively very long time between sequels, but it surely’s good when a director takes time to actually contemplate what to do with a franchise, fairly than rush one thing simply because it would make some form of monetary sense to take action. Followers, in the interim, should train some endurance.
