Poor Kevin Costner can’t get a break. The actor was once a huge box office draw not only as an actor but as a director. In the 90s he tried a few times as an actor to make post apocalyptic movies. There was The Postman in 1997, and Waterworld in 1995. The latter has become a successful cult classic while Postman remains one of his biggest flops.
Since Hollywood loves to pad its bank account on the backs of original movies, it only seemed inevitable that Waterworld would get a sequel, and there was one announced in the form of a a TV series, but it wouldn’t see the light of day: as Annie Lennox would say: “Whyyyyy?”
The truth is Costner himself. He doesn’t like doing sequels to his movies; he’s adamant about it. He has made a few cameos in DC superhero films, but beyond that you won’t ever see him doing The Bodyguard 2.
Conversely, the 70-year-old recently wrote and directed an epic western called Horizon with plans to make two more films in the series. The box office wasn’t kind to Horizon therefore the sequels are currently in limbo. Chapter 2 of the saga is finished but has been pulled from theatrical release, while the third may never get made. See? he can’t get a break.
Meanwhile back to Waterworld 2, it seems that this film could be one that could turn a profit. George Miller did it with his Mad Max reboot laterals with Fury Road (2015) and Furiosa (2024). Waterworld borrows a lot from the Mad Max idea but transplants the action from land to sea. It’s a gargantuan practical effects masterpiece with over-the-top action showstoppers and incredible stunts.
Those elements of the film are still a popular draw, the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood still produces a live version of Waterworld as a stunt spectacular and it’s as popular today as it was when it first opened in 1995.
Sadly, unless a brave director takes on the project, we probably won’t see a Waterworld 2 in the near-future. Costner doesn’t have to star in it, he could be a producer. However his Horizon loss probably puts his bank account in jeopardy and it would have to be giant leap of faith.
The TV show originally had 10 Cloverfield Lane’s director, Dan Trachtenberg attached, and that would have been a promising pairing.
With Hollywood currently in a transitional phase where they can’t decide between putting things straight to streaming or risk a profit-loss doing a traditional release, their heads might explode thinking about which direction to take Waterworld 2. Maybe that’s why it stalled; they are frozen with anxiety thinking about such an epic endeavor.