Brad Pitt is Officially Reviving a Genre After 13 Years of Unbeaten Box-Office Record

Brad Pitt is heading back into the zombie apocalypse. The actor is officially set to return for the World War Z sequel, and the news arrived right in the middle of his press tour for another Paramount film, Heart of the Beast (via Deadline).

Paramount had already confirmed at CinemaCon in April that the sequel was in development, and Pitt will also produce it. The 2013 original was based on Max Brooks’ bestselling 2006 novel, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.

Pitt played Gerry Lane, a former United Nations investigator racing across the globe to stop a zombie pandemic. A sequel has been attempted before, with David Fincher at one point attached to direct, but Paramount scrapped that version in 2019 (via THR).

The wait has been long for good reason. With more than $540.4 million worldwide, World War Z is still the highest-grossing zombie movie of all time.

Who Is Behind Brad Pitt’s World War Z Sequel?

The biggest talking point of this latest announcement is the director. Edward Berger is taking the reins, stepping in for Marc Forster, who directed the original. Berger first grabbed global attention with the war drama All Quiet on the Western Front, then made waves again during awards season with the papal thriller Conclave.

He and Pitt already know each other well. The two recently wrapped The Riders for A24, which is now in post-production. It is not the most obvious pick for a zombie blockbuster, but Berger has proven again and again that he knows how to build tension when the whole world seems to be falling apart.

Dennis Kelly is writing the script. He is a name that should excite fans of unsettling stories. He created Utopia, the cult conspiracy thriller from Channel 4, and co-created The Third Day, the eerie HBO and Sky Atlantic series starring Jude Law.

Pitt’s company Plan B is on board, with Pitt producing alongside his longtime partners Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. Berger is also an executive producer. For now, Paramount is keeping everything else under wraps. There is no official title, no release date, and no plot details yet.

Why World War Z Remains the Highest-Grossing Zombie Movie

Brad Pitt as Gerald “Gerry” Lane in World War Z | Credits: Paramount Pictures

World War Z far outpaces other zombie films at the box office. The closest challengers are both from the Resident Evil franchise. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter sits in second place with around $312.2 million, while Resident Evil: Afterlife takes third with about $300.2 million. That is a gap of more than $200 million. However, Zach Cregger’s new Resident Evil movie could shuffle those rankings.

But the numbers only tell half the story. World War Z works because it does not feel like a typical zombie movie. This one goes global, jumping from Philadelphia to South Korea, Jerusalem, and Wales, and showing what a real worldwide outbreak might look like.

The zombies themselves are also terrifying in a new way. The sequence where they climb over the walls of Jerusalem is still one of the most jaw-dropping moments in the genre. At the heart of it is a film about a father trying to get back to his family.

Pitt plays Gerry as a calm man rather than an action hero, which makes the danger feel far more real. With a tense finale inside a lab, the result is a zombie movie that almost anyone can enjoy, even viewers who usually avoid horror.

What are your expectations for the new zombie thriller sequel? Let us know in the comments below!