It is almost 15 years sinceAttack the Blockdefied genre boundaries to deliver a sci-fi action-comedy starring a pre-Star WarsJohn Boyega, and promised more to come. However, despite the movie’s 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film underperformed at the box office and failed to make back its budget of $8 million, and a sequel was never really on the cards. At least until the film’s 10th anniversary.
Attack the Block: Why it’s Such an Underrated Sci-Fi Film
Not just a launching pad for director Joe Cornish and actor John Boyega, Attack the Block is a killer sci-fi adventure flick with a lot to say.
In 2021,Attack the Block 2received an unexpected announcement, withwriter/director Joe Cornish working on a new script and Boyega set to reprise his role. Since then, though, it has been a hard slog to see any kind of movement on the project, with only limited updates coming from the star and director. During an appearance on theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, Boyega put that right with one of the most positive updates the sequel has received, even hinting that it could be coming next year. He said of the script for the sequel:
“I’ve read it, man. It’s cool, bro. It’s cool. Yeah, I’ve read it. Joe Cornish has done a phenomenal job on his draft. And we’re just cooking it to make it right for everyone. And we obviously need more money for those aliens. We want it to look real good for that 2026 crowd. But for us it’s just about developing the story, and making sure Moses and the rest of the characters that we have left are fully hashed out before bringing it out and going to shoot. But I’m very passionate and very willing that we will shootAttack the Block 2. It will happen. You’re going to have to see, but the story is crazy. I’ve got to get in the gym, Jesus.”
Joe Cornish Compared ‘Attack the Block 2’ to Some Big Sci-fi Blockbusters
Back in 2023, two years after announcing thatAttack the Block 2was in development, director Joe Cornish shared that the sequel was taking its time because he and Boyega had a lot of research to do on the project before really getting into it. He said:
“The nice thing about the first movie was, nobody was expecting it. Nobody knew who John was or who I was, certainly, outside of UK comedy circles. And we put a lot of work into the first one! Obviously, I can make stuff up about aliens quite easily, but the other stuff – the aspects of reality that we folded the fantasy into – we did a lot of research for, and so we are currently doing that same thing.”
While we have been given some idea of whatAttack the Block 2will involve, including picking up with Boyega’s character, Moses, now in his 30s and tackling gentrification, Cornish teased a bigger sequel, and even went as far as to compare it to two of the greatest movie sequels of all time:AliensandTerminator 2. He said:
“This very afternoon I spent two hours [interviewing] someone whose life intersects with one element of the story, and when we’re done here I’m gonna go home and transcribe that. So, we’re doing our due diligence in building the screenplay and taking the same amount of care we took with the first one. But we’re very, very quietly confident and excited about what we’ve got. We think about Alien and Aliens and Terminator and Terminator 2, and we wanna take a shot at doing our version of what people did for [those movies].”
If Boyega’s 2026 tease proves to be just that, thenAttack the Block 2could get cameras rolling later this year, and the original movie’s cult classic status means there will be plenty of people ready for it.
Source:Happy Sad Confused Podcast
Attack the Block
