To put it mildly, over the past few years, the continuous epidemic has seriously interfered with the plans of the globe. That means a flurry of postponed release dates or shifts to digital debuts for the entertainment business. And while if going to the movies in a theatre is still considered sacred by many, an increasing number of individuals these days prefer to watch movies at home. So, sadly, studios have consigned smaller and lesser known productions to unceremonious, barely marketed streaming releases and fans are denied the opportunity to watch some amazing hidden gems on the big screen unless the box office hype is anticipated to be out of this world.
One such victim was the movie “Love and Monsters,” starring Michael Rooker, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Dylan O’Brien, and Ariana Greenblatt. The post-apocalyptic monster adventure from director Michael Matthews and writers Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson, which was originally scheduled for a February 2020 release date, received a very limited theatrical release on October 16, 2020, on 387 screens. That same day, it also went on digital release on Apple TV and FandangoNOW.
But because of how O’Brien’s Joel left us at the end of the film, many people theorised that we would still see this universe in more theatres someday in a sequel. There hasn’t yet been a formal approval given, despite the fact that it is up for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. What is known, however, concerning a potential “Love and Monsters 2” is as follows.
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In “Love and Monsters,” a mutant monster-filled catastrophe has been going on for seven years. Despite the eradication of 95% of the human population, a few colonies have persisted and are making every effort to do so. O’Brien, a star of “Teen Wolf” and “Maze Runner,” plays Joel, a romantic but humble survivor. He is desperate to reunite with his high school sweetheart after learning that she is residing in a colony 80 miles away. He isn’t really the survivalist kind, though. Joel travels into the unknown to overcome his incompetence and find true love with the aid of a very helpful canine companion named Boy and other travellers they meet along the route.
This narrative has the makings of a sequel with the addition of new colonies and a tonne of new enemies for Joel and Boy to face. However, Matthews said that wasn’t really what they were aiming for when they set out to develop the first one in his conversation with Decider on the possibilities of other tales from this realm. But as is frequently the case in Hollywood, you should never rule anything out.
“There’s been some discussion about [a sequel]. I’ve got a few interesting ideas. But we did focus on this just being its own movie. It’s not the approach of, ‘How do we start a franchise?’ It was really like, ‘Let’s make a cool movie! And then let’s see what the response is, how it does, and think about an interesting way of where that world can go.’ For me, and for Dylan, that’s been quite a key thing: Not trying to visualize it as this movie that’s a franchise starter. That’s really up to the audience.”
There may be a sequel or spinoff if the audience discovers and like “Love and Monsters” on digital media. O’Brien was so endearing, and the universe they constructed for the movie was so fascinating, that it was one of my favourite movies to come out during the pandemic. It puts a unique twist on the kaiju genre. How can you not love Boy, too? “Love and Monsters” is currently available for viewing on Hulu and Paramount+ if you haven’t watched it yet and would like to.
