Wolfs director says he canceled sequel because Apple stabbed him in the back

Earlier this week, we wrote about the slightly surprising news that Apple wouldn’t be going forward with a sequel to its George Clooney and Brad Pitt action-comedy Wolfs. (Surprising because, despite getting slightly mixed reviews that noted that there’s only so much even Clooney and Pitt’s charisma can do with a series of somewhat tired crime movie tropes, the service had previously touted the movie as a massive hit that it had already green-lit a sequel to.) Now, writer-director Jon Watts (probably best known for directing the three MCU Spider-Man movies) has explained that he was the one who pulled the plug on the previously announced sequel, and that he did so unliterally, explaining that he “no longer trusted [Apple] as a creative partner.”

This is per Deadline, which got a fuller statement from Watts about what sounds like a sincerely pissed-off decision, which, as we kind of suspected, came down to the movie’s release structure. (The film got pulled back from a full theatrical release and shifted to streaming just a week before it was set to hit theaters.) Here’s Watts:

I showed Apple my final cut of Wolfs early this year. They were extremely enthusiastic about it and immediately commissioned me to start writing a sequel. But their last minute shift from a promised wide theatrical release to a streaming release was a total surprise and made without any explanation or discussion. I wasn’t even told about it until less than a week before they announced it to the world. I was completely shocked and asked them to please not include the news that I was writing a sequel. They ignored my request and announced it in their press release anyway, seemingly to create a positive spin to their streaming pivot. And so I quietly returned the money they gave me for the sequel. I didn’t want to talk about it because I was proud of the film and didn’t want to generate any unnecessary negative press. I loved working with Brad and George (and Amy and Austin and Poorna and Zlatko) and would happily do it again. But the truth is that Apple didn’t cancel the Wolfs sequel, I did, because I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.

It’s rare for a still-rising director to open up and burn a bridge with a studio quite this hard, but it sounds like Watts felt genuinely betrayed by Apple’s decision to pull the movie from theaters. (It did get a single-week limited run, presumably to appease folks on the creative side, but Watts doesn’t sound especially appeased.)