Director Jon Watts has told Deadline he pulled his proposed sequel to Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Apple gave Watts the sequel order immediately after they saw the first one, but they lost his trust with their next move. Though they assured Watts a theatrical release, Apple shifted the movie to streaming, robbing Watts of his promised opportunity. As Watts explained, he canceled the project because “I no longer trusted them as a creative partner.”
For those new to the filmmaker, Jon Watts is best known for directing all three of Marvel’s recent Spider-Man trilogy. Before he took over Tom Holland’s superhero series, Watts crafted the silly slasher Clown and the road-thriller Cop Car. Wolfs was his first non-MCU movie since 2015, and people seemed to like it.
Jon Watts Pulled George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s Wolfs Sequel
Wolfs follows the aforementioned stars as a pair of unnamed fixers who prefer to work as lone wolves. It’s a classic headbutting heroes affair, allowing the two protagonists to banter between action sequences. Critics were broadly fond of it, offering a 66% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 5.9 out of 10. The film doesn’t have any box-office information because Apple pulled its theatrical release only a few days after its Venice Film Festival premiere. Deadline reported the change, citing the poor performance of Fly Me to the Moon as a potential cause. Apple still excitedly announced a sequel with Watts still around to write and direct, but that project quietly fizzled behind the scenes. Watts did, however, state he’d be thrilled to work with George Clooney and Brad Pitt again.
Apple’s questionable decision-making skills have lost them a lot of opportunities lately. It seems they lack the foresight to determine what does and doesn’t belong in a theater. Flixpatrol places Apple TV’s subscriber count around 25 million, claiming a shaky 15th place position despite an apparent tie with CuriosityStream. Wolfs would have fit into Apple’s strategy of unleashing films into theaters before bringing them to their streaming service. This technique generally boosts the profile of streaming offerings, but it also requires investing in a theatrical release. Apple’s track record has been shaky, releasing excellent projects like Killers of the Flower Moon and trash like Argylle in equal measure. Unfortunately, both underperformed at the box office. The streamer’s string of financial failures likely motivated them to attempt a straight-to-streaming release. That decision had mixed results.
Quoting Flixpatrol again, Wolfs is the 9th-most-watched film on Apple TV+ this year. That level of success, especially with two famous faces on the poster, likely would have translated to some theatrical impact. More importantly, pulling the rug out from under Jon Watts has cost the studio a beloved writer/director. If a Wolfs sequel ever sees the light of day, it’ll have to do so without Watts.
