We’re now less than a week away from the release of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Luc Besson’s adaptation of the French sci-fi comic series Valerian and Laureline, but it seems the filmmaker is already looking to the future – well into the future in fact, as he’s already completed a screenplay for a second movie and is now working on the third.
“I’ve finished number two already and I’m writing number three,” Besson tells Nerdist. “I don’t know if we’re going to do it because it’s not up to me, it’s up to the audience if they like it. My friends said, ‘why are you writing the second one, you don’t even know if you’re going to do it?’ I don’t care, I’m just happy to write it. I enjoy writing it. I’m just writing for myself, so I finished number two already and got bored about a month so I said, ‘fuck it, let’s write the third’. I could write like fifteen of them, just for fun.”
As Besson says, any sequels will be dependent on the audience turning out for the first movie, although he’s previously claimed that the $180 million-budgeted sci-fi has already earned back 96% of its budget through distributor pre-sales.
SEE ALSO: Exclusive new images from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
In the 28th century,Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha—an ever-expanding metropolis where species from all over the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. There is a mystery at the center of Alpha, a dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is set for release on July 21st in the States and on August 2nd in the UK and features a cast that includes Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, John Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Sam Spruell, Rutger Hauer, John Goodman, Elizabeth Debicki and Kris Wu.
Originally published July 16, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
