Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow (or Live. Die. Repeat.) was one of the most underrated action films of 2014. A time-bending sleeper hit, the sci-fi gem messed with our brains by introducing audiences to Tom Cruise's Bill Cage -- a coward who suddenly finds himself endowed with the ability to Groundhog Day himself into an action hero during an apocalyptic alien invasion. That's about as high-concept as science fiction can get, but now it seems that Liman has huge plans to mess with the film's continuity in the sequel... which is actually a prequel?. He explained:
That is the only sequel that I'm considering doing, and it's because first of all the story is so amazing---much better than the original film, and I loved and loved the original film---and second of all, it's a sequel that's a prequel. ... I had these intellectual ideas on how you should make a sequel that are unlike how anybody else makes a sequel, and this script and this idea fit perfectly into that idea. So it's gonna revolutionize how people make sequels. And again that's why I try to do things like Invisible that are just, the revolution's sort of built into the idea. It's more heresy in the film world for me to pitch things that are sort of unheard of.
During a recent conversation with Collider about his new VR series Invisible, Doug Liman addressed his highly anticipated Edge of Tomorrow sequel to provide updates on the project. Although he played pretty coy with the specific details about the film, he made it abundantly clear that he really wants to break the mold with Edge of Tomorrow 2. While most follow-up installments progress a given story by taking a film's narrative either forward or backward in time, Edge of Tomorrow 2 will seemingly do both, and operate as "a sequel that's a prequel." Okay, Mr. Liman. You have our attention.
Do we have any real idea as to what that means? Absolutely not. Are we excited about the prospect of it? Obviously. It's already incredibly clear that Doug Liman has a passion for this sequel (it's the only one he wants to commit to right now), as earlier today we even reported that he has remained vocal in his belief that Edge of Tomorrow 2 will be a game-changer in the realm of Hollywood sequels.
Given what we already know about the Edge of Tomorrow universe, it seems that Doug Liman may double down on the time-bending qualities of the world established in the first film. Edge of Tomorrow introduced an incredibly bizarre alien threat to Earth in the form of an extraterrestrial hive mind with the ability to manipulate time. With that sci-fi trope already established, the next installment in the franchise could take place before, after, or during the events of the first film -- or even all of the above. The original Edge of Tomorrow ended with a fairly definitive conclusion, so going back in time may simply be the only logical way to progress the story in a meaningful way. As long as we get more of Emily Blunt as the Full Metal Bitch we will be happy.
Only time (get it?) will tell what Doug Liman truly means by his sequel-prequel comments. We will bring you more information related to Edge of Tomorrow 2 as new details become available to us!
