Entertainment
Netflix’s Giant Shark Movie That Rivaled Jason Statham’s ‘The Meg’ Gets a Major Sequel Update
Giant sharks aren’t leaving our screens anytime soon. Back in 2024, Netflix took its own stab at the sharksploitation genre with Under Paris, a French horror thriller that saw Paris beset by a mutated variant of the predator big enough to rival The Meg lurking within the Seine River as the city prepared to hold the World Triathlon Championships. Despite debuting to mixed reviews, it exploded on the platform, becoming its second-most-watched non-English film ever, behind only Troll. All the success, unsurprisingly, earned Xavier Gens‘ film a sequel, and now, nearly two years later, a new report has confirmed who will continue the shark-infested carnage.
Another prominent French director, Alexandre Aja, is set to take the reins in Gens’ place for Under Paris 2. At this time, it’s unknown why Gens stepped away, but his replacement is a strong fit nonetheless, having become a known commodity when it comes to water-based creature features, including the campy Piranha 3D and the crocodile disaster flick Crawl. He also helmed the widely-praised and much darker 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes and, most recently, took on the under-the-radar Halle Berry supernatural mystery Never Let Go for Lionsgate. Netflix has yet to announce who is writing the script or if Gens will be back in any other capacity for the follow-up. When the sequel was first announced, he was said to be developing with hopes of filming beginning in the fall of 2025.
Plot details for the Under Paris sequel have yet to be shared, but it’s expected to bring back star Bérénice Bejo to reprise her role as marine biologist Sophia Assalas. Producer Vincent Roget is also back in the fold. The first film followed Sophia as she raced to save Paris from a certain bloodbath courtesy of the giant shark named Lilith in the Seine. In the process, she had to face her past and reckon with the violent death of her husband and colleague at the jaws of said shark. The result is a thrilling Jaws-like tale that goes off the rails, as she joins forces with police diver Adil (Nassim Lyes) to hunt down and kill the monstrosity as Paris’s mayor tries to rush the Triathlon along despite the danger. Presumably, Aja will pick up from the bleak ending Gens left viewers on, which saw the duo’s plans fail and all hell break loose as the city’s center is plunged underwater and Lilith’s offspring flood the rest of the world.
‘Under Paris 2’ Follows a Long String of Beloved Shark Horrors
While Aja may have experience with terrors in the water, it’ll be a tall task to replicate the success of Under Paris and create a shark flick that can stand with the best. The genre is flooded with films of varying quality, but it’s also delivered some truly classic films like Steven Spielberg‘s aforementioned Jaws or the quiet low-budget horror Open Water. Last year even saw a new addition to the sharksploitation oeuvre that earned widespread acclaim — the Jai Courtney-led Dangerous Animals, following a surfer who gets dragged to the ocean by a shark-obsessed serial killer to be ritualistically fed to the sea creatures. Expectations remain high that Aja can create another fun, chaotic, and bloody ride that’ll draw audiences back to the infested waters of Paris, though.
Under Paris is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the sequel now that Aja is on board.
- Release Date
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June 5, 2024
- Runtime
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101 Minutes