Much like its endless hordes of zombies, the sequel to Paramount Pictures’ 2013 horror film World War Z has risen from the dead.
As reported by Collider, the announcement of a sequel in the works was made by Paramount during CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas, where the studio also shared the other projects in its pipeline, including Top Gun 3, a Call of Duty adaptation, and the continuation of other iconic IPs like Star Trek and G.I. Joe. Apart from the announcement that the World War Z sequel is in the works, no other information, such as its director, cast, or release window, was announced alongside the reveal.
Still, this news is pretty surprising considering a sequel was previously planned early on, following the original’s release. World War Z was a commercial success upon release in 2013, and made over US$540 million at the worldwide box office, leading to a sequel being promptly greenlit. The project faced numerous setbacks, however, and pre-production was halted in 2019, citing issues like budget and scheduling conflicts.
So why has Paramount decided to revive the franchise now? One possibility comes from a surprising source – the popularity of Saber Interactive’s 2019 zombie shooter of the same name. Back in 2025, Saber development chief Tim Willits said during an interview with IGN at Gamescom that he believed the success of the game might have helped convince Paramount to greenlight a movie sequel.
“30 million people have played that game. Isn’t that crazy? 30 million unique people,” he exclaimed. “There’s talk at Paramount about making another World War Z. Again, they have not told me this, but I’m pretty sure it’s because of that game.”
Regardless of the reason, at least now we have firm confirmation that the pyramid-making zombie adventure will continue. The question now is whether leading hero Brad Pitt, who played Gerry Lane in the first movie, will make a return, or how the zombie virus will adapt to the humans’ countermeasures as seen at the end of the first film.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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