Wolfs director Jon Watts cancelled plans for a sequel after Apple studio executives decided to release the film on its streaming service.

In early August, several weeks before the film’s September release, Apple announced that Wolfs would come out on Apple TV+ instead of in cinemas.

In the same press release, they revealed that the Spider-Man: No Way Home filmmaker was going to write and direct a sequel to his action comedy, which starred Brad Pitt and George Clooney as fixers who were forced to work together to clean up a mess.

However, Watts has now revealed that he didn’t want the sequel to be announced in the first place and quietly gave back the money because he had lost faith in Apple executives over their change in release strategy.

“I showed Apple my final cut of Wolfs early this year. They were extremely enthusiastic about it and immediately commissioned me to start writing a sequel,” Watts explained. “But their last minute shift from a promised wide theatrical release to a streaming release was a total surprise and made without any explanation or discussion. I wasn’t even told about it until less than a week before they announced it to the world.

“I was completely shocked and asked them to please not include the news that I was writing a sequel. They ignored my request and announced it in their press release anyway, seemingly to create a positive spin to their streaming pivot. And so I quietly returned the money they gave me for the sequel.”

Watts noted that he kept the news private for months because he didn’t want “unnecessary negative press” to tarnish his movie.

Insisting that he would love to work with Pitt, Clooney and their co-stars again, Watts concluded, “But the truth is that Apple didn’t cancel the Wolfs sequel, I did, because I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.”

Wolfs premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 1 September, although Watts did not attend after catching Covid. The film played in limited cinemas for a week before landing on Apple TV+ on 27 September.

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