Mike Flanagan Wants to Revive Jaws With a New Sequel

Picture the Spielberg shark — the $800 million leviathan of summer cinema — handed to a director known for squeezing dread out of every frame. That’s the image Mike Flanagan recently painted for fans when he admitted a wish to tackle Jaws, not by redoing the original, but by giving the franchise a fresh sequel.

Flanagan arrives at this conversation with momentum. His recent adaptation of Carrie earned strong notices, and The Life of Chuck (2024), starring Tom Hiddleston, showed he can translate complex prose to compelling screen drama. Before that came his glossy, unnerving mini‑series version of The Fall of the House of Usher — proof he’s not afraid to rework canons that many would call untouchable.

During a Reddit Q&A, Flanagan was blunt: “Honestly, I wish I could make a Jaws movie.” He went on to note that while the original is untouchable, the series’ follow‑ups left room for reinvention. That distinction matters. He isn’t pitching a beat‑for‑beat remake of Spielberg’s 1975 landmark. He’s imagining a continuation — a new chapter, with teeth.

The history is clear and unforgiving. Jaws spawned three sequels: Jaws 2 (1978), Jaws 3‑D (1983) and Jaws: The Revenge (1987). None managed to live in the original’s shadow. Rotten Tomatoes still idolizes Spielberg’s debut — roughly a 97% critic score and a 98% audience score — while the sequels never cracked a 60% consensus among both critics and viewers. Jaws: The Revenge sits near the bottom, and Jaws 3‑D didn’t fare much better.

That’s the challenge. Reinventing a franchise whose first film is a cultural summit requires more than nostalgia. It asks for a fresh engine — a tonal recalibration that respects the past while justifying a new story. Flanagan’s work suggests he knows the tools: intimate character work, slow tension that snaps, and a cinematic language for fear that doesn’t rely on cheap shocks.

If anyone can turn a beloved classic into a worthy sequel, Flanagan's track record makes him the most plausible candidate.

He didn’t stop at Spielberg. Flanagan also mentioned Jurassic Park as another franchise he’d love to approach, imagining a picture that leans fully into horror rather than adventure. The idea of a genuinely terrifying dinosaur movie — one that prioritizes atmosphere and dread — is exactly the sort of risky pivot that could either invigorate or fracture a legacy brand.

For now, neither the Jaws sequel nor a Jurassic reinvention is in active production. But the mere fact that Flanagan publicly covets these projects is telling: studios and audiences are still hungry for directors who can reframe classics without flattening them. Will he be allowed to bite? Only time — and green lights — will tell.