More than 25 years after its release, Waterworld will be yet another nostalgic cult classic turned into a streaming series. In an interview with Collider, producer John Davis has confirmed that a sequel TV series to the 1995 dystopian film is currently in development at Universal with a first-look deal.
Waterworld, directed by Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), is set years after a polar ice cap melts and sea level rises nearly 25,000 feet, covering almost all land on the planet. The story centers around the nameless antihero, The Mariner (Kevin Costner), a survivor who sails the Earth in his trimaran. The Mariner reluctantly agrees to help a woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and a young girl (Tina Majorino) find the mythical Dryland while trying to fight odd starvation and the “Smokers”, a group of outlaws led by The Deacon (Dennis Hopper).
The film was the most expensive film made at the time, with a budget of around $172-175 million. Waterworld was met with mixed reviews, and the studio was unable to recover its massive budget at the box office. The film was also met with production difficulties filming in the ocean, including a hurricane off the coast of Hawaii that wiped out an entire set. With new technologies, this will more than likely not be a problem for the new series.
The series will pick up 20 years after the end of the original film with the same characters as the focus, though no actors have been attached to the series yet. Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) will direct the series.
“For now, it’s at Universal Pictures, and we are putting it together,” Jon Fox, Davis’ partner at Davis Entertainment, told Collider. “But yes, we think it already has a home.” According to Collider, the series will likely air on Peacock given the Universal deal.
No showrunner has been attached to the series as the series is in the early stages of development.