After World War Z surprised everyone familiar with its troubled production by turning out relatively coherent, making more than $500 million worldwide in the process, the sequel was a foregone conclusion. Brad Pitt took the time to find a director he could actually speak to without wanting to throttle, and got Eastern Promises writer Stephen Knight on board to pen the screenplay, all of which means that, after nearly two years of development, they can at least set a release date. Entertainment Weekly reports the next film in the zombies-acting-like-soccer-fans series is set for a June 9, 2017 premiere, meaning that Pitt and Co. have a good year or so to make the entire film—then decide it sucks, rewrite, and reshoot the whole thing. You know, the usual World War Z strategy.
There’s not much known yet about whether the sequel will try to pay greater heed to its source material, or maybe just double the number of cities through which Brad Pitt doesn’t hustle quite as speedily as one might hope. What that release date does tell us is that the movie would be going head-to-head with the planned sequel to the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, another film that didn’t inspire much optimism with its advance buzz. Still, we’ll have to wait for that movie’s release before we can look ahead to 2017 and start making the “Spikerock Plants Vs. Zombies” jokes such a cinematic weekend deserves.