New rule: No film ending with the obligatory suggestion “come and do another job for us” is allowed to finish a franchise. Extraction 2, director Sam Hargrave and writer Joe Russo’s follow-up to the 2020 Netflix hit Extraction, ends on such a suggestion. Idris Elba’s yet-to-be-named Man in the Suit advises that Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) help commute his sentence by (probably) rescuing and killing more people.
Structured almost identically to the previous film, Extraction 2 seems to be charting a path à la John Wick—a scalable stunt-heavy franchise led by one of cinema’s most bankable action stars. The film’s ending certainly leaves the door open, anyway; though, it’s still unclear where the future of the franchise leads.
In an interview with Collider earlier this year, writer Joe Russo addressed the question of future Extraction installments:
“I mean, you never want to anticipate the audience’s response, but there’s certainly room for an Extraction 3. There are some surprises in Extraction 2 that could open up the world of Extraction, on top of which, I think Sam Hargrave did an incredible job with this film, and I think that he has topped the first one.”
Russo’s comment seems to imply a contingency on “audience response”; Netflix’s decision to greenlight future seasons may be a viewership call. The first Extraction, which released on the streaming platform in April 2020 was renewed shortly after in May. The film had by then, however, become Netflix’s most watched movie at the time, gobbling up about 99 million account clicks in the first month.
While 2023 marks a different streaming age, Extraction 2 is still likely to be Netflix’s spring blockbuster. Its Marvel-adjacent involvement (with both writer Joe Russo and star Chris Hemsworth) will likely help juice the numbers. Joe and Anthony Russo’s 2022 action entry for the streaming service, The Gray Man (with Marvel’s Chris Evans), was Netflix’s second most popular film last year, earning a sequel shortly after release.
Are we getting an Extraction 3?
Probably yes.
The inclusion of actor Idris Elba (who appears only briefly in Extraction 2) also signals an intentional future for the franchise. Director Sam Hargrave even told Screen Rant that “Joe [Russo] had always wanted to expand the Extraction universe, and to populate it with super talented actors who could carry their own movies in this universe and start their own franchises.” Elba’s character could be the link to future Extraction storylines.
Chris Hemsworth is certainly on board.
In an interview with Total Film, Hemsworth explained his motivations for sticking with the film series:
“I love it. I love playing the character. I love this world. I love having something else outside of Marvel that’s amassed a bit of a following, something more in the real world. I honestly feel like we made a better film than the first one. That’s rare in the franchise world. We’d be remiss not to have a crack at another one.”
Hargrave also expressed appetite to continue the franchise. “We’ll see how people feel and respond,” he said in the same interview, hedging his optimism. “And if the world is craving another Tyler Rake adventure, I think it’d be something I’d be interested in seeing put up on screen. I have an idea, but I won’t give it away here…”
Assistant Editor
Joshua St Clair is an Assistant Editor at Men’s Health Magazine.
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