Could Jaws re-release success pave the way for a new Jaws sequel?
That’s right, it’s Jaws sequel klaxon time. But, with the Steven Spielberg shark classic making more summer dollars per screen than anything currently on show – and that includes Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home – can the powers that be at Universal really ignore this particular box office monster until it swims up and bites them in the ass?
Some have even said on social media that this could even be a testing of the water for Jaws, with the hope of a new film – the first since Jaws the Revenge in 1987 - to be announced for its 50th birthday in 2025.
We hasten to add that this is strictly rumour central and is based on zero fact, and could just be the willing of fans, but at least it seems to be clear that there is that desire for the return of the original dorsal fin franchise to screens.
It’s happened before
Lots of people have suggested a new Jaws film, or it often gets wheeled out as a subject for the click bait (guilty as charged), but this is different. This IMAX and Real D 3D release shows that the name still sells and still put bums on seats, would a sequel do the same?
With the right approach and the right angle and people involved, why not? Legacy sequels are big, just look at the likes of Halloween, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the still flying high Top Gun: Maverick. The original Top Gun is one year older than Jaws the Revenge (1987), so don’t say too much time has passed under the Jaws Bridge for us to worry about whether it is safe to go back into the water.
And Universal can’t rely on the Fast and Furious series indefinitely, so surely something like the Jaws franchise is ripe for a return in some guise? Well, if rumours are to be believed, that could be down to Steven Spielberg, although some would argue his quality control radar didn’t stop Jaws 3D (1983) and Jaws the Revenge from surfacing on cinema screens.
You yell Barracuda, here I sit
We all know that there is no shark film quite like Jaws, this year alone we have had the like of The Requin, Maneater, Shark Bait and Blood in the Water. None have hit that Jaws sweet spot, and none ever will, but that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy watching the sequels to Jaws or other shark films any less.
We always want to see more. Not that it means we will enjoy the finished project, just look at how polarising something like The Meg has been, and that – just like Peter Benchley’s original book – was also based on a novel and had a long gestation period to the big screen. Some loved it, others loathed it, and many are looking forward to the sequel.
I’ll drink to your legacy
And look, if it is no good, or you don’t like it, it certainly doesn’t tarnish or rubbish the original. Even the three sequels didn’t manage that. Jaws is safe, it is – just like great white sharks - protected.
We can agree there is a continued, if not growing, appetite for Jaws and a love of shark films. Don’t leave the shark film dead in the water.
What makes Dirty Harry (1971) still great wasn’t diminished by the increasingly inferior sequels, even if The Dead Pool (1988) includes an appearance The Daily Jaws follower, Slash from Guns and Roses, or The Omen sequels or Poltergeist follow ups. And is that other Universal property Psycho any less of a classic thanks to the shot-by-shot remake or three sequels. Nope.
Don’t wait for me!
Let us be very clear here, time is running out for a Jaws Legacy sequel.
Richard Dreyfuss, now in his 70s, is the only main original surviving cast member, with Robert Shaw passing away in 1978, so he’s the obvious and likely most welcome choice, even if it was returning to Amity island 50 years after the 50th regatta, returning one last time to pay his respects to Chief Brody, and even to Quint.
And – although she hasn’t appeared in anything since Jaws the Revenge – Lorraine Gary could also make a return as Ellen Brody, even if it was just a short scene between her and Dreyfuss. It would also be great to welcome a now retired Deputy Hendricks back into the fold.
In fact, we even saw a concept trailer as far back as 2018 for Jaws Beneath, which gave us a taste of what a Jaws legacy sequel could look like, featuring clips from other films featuring Richard Dreyfuss, such as the Piranha remake, Paranoia and Coma, to help show us an older returning Matt Hooper.
Perfect? No, but it got lots of people stoked, and made the possibility of another Jaws film feel than much more real.
Or the film could focus on Michael Brody – or his daughter Thea – or even a Brody offspring we have never even met before – helping continue the series.
Michael Brody the character may have featured in every film, but he has always been played by a different actor, so even with his return we would still need someone like Dreyfuss to anchor it to the original Steven Spielberg shark classic.
Did Jaws ever need a sequel? Not really, but then neither did The Magnificent Seven or even the likes of The Omen, but that is Hollywood for you. And if the same studio can keep on churning out Fast and the Furious films, then it could do far worse than giving us one last return to Amity Island with some of the original cast.
So, what could a Jaws legacy sequel look like? It could be that it continues after the events of Jaws the Revenge (where Sean Brody and Martin Brody are dead) or takes it back to after the events of Jaws 2 (for many the most liked and accepted of the sequels) or plays the Halloween and the forthcoming The Exorcist card and dials it back to after the events of the original Jaws.
I don’t mean to continue it after Hooper and Brody hit the beach, it has almost been 50 years since Jaws first hit screens, so it will look like Richard Dreyfuss will have pruned a bit since filming, and sadly Roy Scheider is no longer with us – even if he has recently been brought back through the magic of CGI for Beautiful Blue Eyes.
If Michael Myers, Ghostface, Maverick, the Ghostbusters and the T-Rex can have a crack and win at the box office, then why not Jaws? However, you look at it, for many the series can’t get any lower than Jaws the Revenge, but it showed us glimpses of what could have been, especially when we saw returning characters on the island where it all began.
And Universal can’t have been blind to the shiver of shark film releases of late, some which have been pretty good stuff, such as The Shallows (2016), and even both 47 Meters Down and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and not forgetting the huge box office of The Meg (2018). A sequel to that surfaces in 2023, directed by Jaws fan Ben Wheatley (Ben, get in touch, we’d love to chat).
Tom Cruise has helped Top Gun: Maverick, er, cruise into the stratosphere when it is has come to the sheer excitement on the screen, delivering a film that no one knew they wanted or needed a sequel to over three decades after the original hit. It successfully harked back to the original and yet also delivered something new and focussed on a new group of people.
There is absolutely no reason that a new Jaws film couldn’t do the same, let’s just have the return of some of the original cast, keep at least parts of it in Martha’s Vineyard and let’s have Spielberg as at least Executive Producer. And let’s have Carl Gottlieb give any script a once over – and guys, let’s get him involved right from the start this time.
Is it ever going to capture the brilliance of Jaws? Of course it isn’t, no one could, that through a mixture of design and happy accident was lightning in a bottle. We don’t want that, we just want the Jaws sequel that we never really got, never really asked for, but would bloody well watch.
Words by Dean Newman
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