The sequel to a 2023 sleeper hit starring Gerard Butler has been canceled… just two weeks before production was about to roll.
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Ship, the planned sequel to the 2023 action movie Plane, has been officially shelved, star Mike Colter told The Direct. The original film featured Butler as pilot Brodie Torrance, navigating more than just turbulence while escorting a suspected murderer (Colter) before their plane crashes in the Philippines. A sequel was announced in 2023, but it seems to be in a holding pattern ever since.
Colter confirmed to The Direct that the Plane sequel has been grounded indefinitely after Gerard Butler decided to bail just two weeks before production was set to take off. According to Colter, once Butler exited, everything quickly “dissolved.“
“It just, last-minute, Gerard [Butler] decided he didn’t want to go forward with it, and there wasn’t a lot of discussion about it. He just… two weeks out, he pulled out, and we were sort of left trying to figure out what to do. And eventually, that dissolved,” the Luke Cage actor told the outlet.
Butler was not expected to star in Ship but remained a producer through his company G-BASE, giving him a say in the film’s production.
Mike Colter Teases What ‘Ship’ May Have Become Had Gerard Butler Not Pulled the Plug
Colter said he was most excited about the sequel’s script, which would’ve followed his character, Louis Gaspare, as he escaped the island.
“The script. Basically, picking up where we left off, what happened to that character, and how’d he get off the island,” the Evil actor explained. “That was where we were gonna go with it. So, I was excited about it.”
The ending of Plane left Brodie (Butler) and Louis (Colter) on different paths, with Brodie escaping the island and Louis fleeing into the jungle with ransom money. The follow-up, Ship, was set to focus on Colter’s character, with Butler possibly making a cameo. Jean-François Richet, the original director, was expected to return.
Despite the disappointing news, Colter has plenty of upcoming projects.
Colter is set to star in a new series, Cupertino, created by his Evil collaborators Robert and Michelle King. He is also rumored to be returning to the MCU as Luke Cage, potentially joining fellow Marvel Netflix stars Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter.