A potential sequel to Contagion, the 2011 disaster thriller starring Matt Damon, just got an update from director Steven Soderbergh. Contagion tells the story of healthcare professionals, government officials, and everyday working people who find themselves in chaos as a pandemic ravages the globe while the CDC works to find a cure. Contagion hits a little harder now after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than seven million people. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, fans have been curious whether director Steven Soderbergh would revisit the story that now hits so much closer to home, and during a recent interview with Variety, he spoke about the chances of Contagion getting a sequel, highlighting that it would have to be something “new” but also “plausible”:
“We’ve talked about it. It would have to be about something new, but also something that’s plausible. Part of the reason people were able to find resonance in that movie when it opened, and then 10 years later when the pandemic happened, was it was rooted in reality. We’ve got to find a new gimmick, but it’s got to be something that people go, ‘Oh, that could happen.’ Maybe. It would need to be something that’s going on right now that just needs a tiny little shove to turn into a huge thing. To me, Contagion was a horror movie. So the trick would be, can you find something as scary that’s real? There’s certainly a case to be made, especially in the West, for the long-term effects, environmentally, of what we eat, what we breathe. As is well known, we have plastic in our blood now. It’s in our brains. This is a new thing that’s got to have a pretty serious effect. There are lots of possibilities.”
The words “star-studded” get thrown around a lot when describing a cast, but few ensembles have as much power behind them as Contagion. Starring in the lead role is Matt Damon, an Oscar-winning scribe who has also been nominated three times for his performances. Both Jude Law and Kate Winslet also star alongside Damon, the former recently made his Star Wars debut in Skeleton Crew and the latter is known for her role as Rose in Titanic, but is also an Oscar-winner for her work on The Reader. Other notable stars with roles in Contagion include Gwyneth Paltrow, another Oscar-winner who will return to the screen later this year to star in Marty Supreme (Timothée Chalamet), and Laurence Fishburne, an Oscar-nominee who has also starred alongside Keanu Reeves in both The Matrix and John Wick franchises.
Steven Soderbergh Has a New Movie Out This Weekend
While it may be a while before anyone sits down in a theater to watch a sequel to Contagion, Steven Soderbergh has a new movie that just hit theaters everywhere. Soderbergh directed Black Bag, the spy thriller that was penned by David Koepp (Jurassic World: Rebirth), which also stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett alongside Pierce Brosnan. Black Bag has earned rave reviews out of the gate, with critics giving the film a 97% and audiences an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. Soderbergh and Koepp also kicked off the year with the release of Presence, the psychological horror thriller starring Lucy Liu and Julia Fox.
Contagion 2 is being discussed, but there are no concrete developments on the film. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the situation and watch Contagion on Prime Video.
via Collider