I’m a fan of the Underworld franchise, though not Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which starred Rhona Mitra rather than franchise centerpiece Kate Beckinsale, though Beckinsale returned for 2012’s Underworld Awakening, which wasn’t half-bad, and now we learn she’s coming on for one more as a fifth film has just been greenlit.
Titled Underworld: Next Generation, Beckinsale will return as the werewolf hunting vampire Selene with Anna Foerster set to direct. Foerster is best known as Roland Emmerich‘s cinematographer on the likes of Anonymous and White House Down and is also attached to direct Source Code 2, though I’m not holding my breath for that film’s release.
The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter that also says Insurgent star Theo James, who appeared briefly as fellow vampire David in Awakening, will reprise his role though James was asked about the possibility of returning earlier this year and told Digital Spy, “No, they have something in the works, but my involvement in it is… I think it’s going be very difficult to do that with these [Divergent] movies, and my other commitments.”
James is beginning work on Allegiant: Part 1 and 2 this summer with plans to shoot London Fields with Johnny Depp and The Secret Scripture with Rooney Mara after that, but THR reports he’s contracted to fulfill an option agreement on the Underworld sequel so it sounds like we should expect to see him in Prague when Next Generation begins filming in October, presumably for a late 2016 release.
As far as plot is concerned, there’s nothing official yet, though it is expected to focus largely on David’s character along with two female characters, presumably another one being Eve, Selene’s daughter played by India Eisley in Awakening. The title clearly alludes to a passing of the torch and it was reported late last year that producer (and Beckinsale’s husband) Len Wiseman had more than just feature film plans for the franchise.
“There’s a few things that are being developed right now,” Wiseman told IGN, “There’s some characters that we really like that’s kind of more of a spin-off of some of the characters like we did with Rise of the Lycans, and another film is being developed with Kate possibly as well, and then there’s a television series as well. So it’s all kind of expanding that universe.”
Yup, another cinematic universe and likely TV as well.
[yt id=”OmBQ4ZtVntU” width=”515″]
