Although Sylvester Stallone had superhero movie experience prior to 2022 from playing Stakar Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and voicing King Shark in The Suicide Squad, Samaritan saw him taking center stage within the genre. Released directly to Amazon Prime Video subscribers, Samaritan was met with primarily negative critical reception, which made the news that it’s getting a sequel initially shocking for me. However, upon seeing how the movie performed, I’ll admit this decision does make sense.
A little over a year after Samaritan’s release, THR has shared that Bragi F. Schut, who wrote the movie, has been tapped to reprise his scripting duties for Samaritan 2. Naturally Stallone will be back as the title protagonist, a.k.a. Joe Smith, with the outlet reporting that he signed a deal to return prior to the actors strike. The Rocky actor will also once again produce alongside Balboa Productions partner Braden Aftergood. It’s unclear if Julius Avery is being courted to sit back in the director’s chair or if someone else will be tapped to helm.
Based off reviews alone, one wouldn’t be faulted for wondering why Samaritan 2 is being worked on. With a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this flick clearly wasn’t a hit with critics, including CinemaBlend’s review giving it two out of five stars. However, not only were audiences kinder to Samaritan, as indicted by its 71% Audience Score, there was a period where it was the #1 streamed movie on Amazon. So because so many people checked it out, you can’t blame the streaming service for wanting to dip back into this particular pool.
Initially developed as a spec script, Samaritan was initially adapted a series of graphic novels before the movie got off the ground. The story followed a boy named Sam Clearly, played by Javon Walton, who suspects that his neighbor, Stallone’s Joe Smith, is actually the superhero Samaritan, who was thought to have died years earlier. Without going into spoilers, Samaritan’s ending revealed the truth of what really happened during the title hero’s final showdown with his adversary Nemesis, and laid enough groundwork that making a sequel certainly doesn’t feel like a stretch.
If Samaritan 2 moves forward, this will be the second film series Bragi F. Schut has launched. He previously wrote 2019’s Escape Room, which was followed by 2021’s Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, although he wasn’t involved with that project. Schut’s other credits include The Last Voyage of the Demeter and a Dungeons & Dragons TV pilot for eOne and Hasbro.
While we wait for details on what Samaritan 2 will be about, Sylvester Stallone fans should remember that his latest movies, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Expendables 4, can be respectively streamed with a Disney+ subscription and purchased digitally. Netflix subscribers are also free to watch Sly, the documentary about his life.
