Widely considered one of the best werewolf movies of all time, Neil Marshall's action horror Dog Soldiers has been on the list of ‘Movies That Deserve Sequels' since its release – but sadly, it looks like a bad moon has befallen any franchise potential.
Released in 2002 and starring Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby and Liam Cunningham, Dog Soldiers followed a group of soldiers on a training op in the Scottish Highlands, where they're attacked by violent lycanthropes. As Marshall's debut feature, the film was widely praised for its darkly comedic mean streak as well as gloriously gory practical FX.
Posting on Instagram earlier today, The Descent director shared a fan made poster with a heavy hearted caption detailing that, due to rights complications, a Dog Soldiers 2 is probably never going to come to light:
So…. It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that this teaser poster is probably as close as we’ll ever get to a Dog Soldiers sequel. Since so many fans keep asking, I figured I couldn’t keep the disappointing news to myself any longer. Your unwavering loyalty deserves better. For the past 6 years myself and original UK producer of Dog Soldiers, Christopher Figg, have been working tirelessly to negotiate for the rights to make a sequel with the US Producer/rights holder David E. Allen and his company Dash. 6 years!! That’s as long as it took to write and make the first movie.
Unfortunately these negotiations came to a sudden and unexpected halt when, earlier this year, we were due to finalize and sign the agreements and….they disappeared. Vanished. Cut off all communication. Refuse to answer emails or calls. Why, you ask. I don’t know why. That’s the point. We simply don’t know what happened or why, but the end result is that we don’t have the rights to make a sequel without this deal in place, thus rendering it effectively dead. I’m sorry. We tried. We really did. And in Chris Figg’s case spent a lot of money on legal fees doing so. We wanted this for you. For all the countless fans who’ve asked for it. But in the end, perhaps it’s just not meant to be. The original film was lightning in a bottle, and perhaps lightning doesn’t, and in some cases shouldn’t, strike twice. So there it is….
Talks of a sequel, entitled Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat, began circulating as far back as 2004, with various iterations and directors said to be attached, including Andy Armstrong and Michael J. Bassett. Producer Allen (who Marshall references in the above post) teased that the sequel involved McKidd's Private Cooper being “picked up by an American team”.
Other sequel ideas were said to involve a powerful she-wolf, as well as Marshall himself stating that an entire trilogy was at one point planned.
Obviously, today's announcement from Marshall is incredibly disappointing news for Dog Soldiers fans, who have long advocated that the lore of the cult classic has way more room to expand.
Responding in comments, Marshall does promisingly tease that another werewolf movie might not be completely out of the question though – responding to one user who asks “can you not just make another werewolf movie and call it something else?”, Marshall replies with a cryptic “well, as it happens…”, hinting that all hopes for a Neil Marshall Werewolf Project might not be yet dashed.
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