There would be no Jaws, Indiana Jones, or Jurassic Park franchises without Spielberg’s brand of escapist filmmaking. However, it’s been a decade since he set out to launch a series of animated Tintin movies with The Adventures of Tintin and fans still have yet to see a sequel.
While the Tintin sequel has become increasingly unlikely as each year passes, there’s always a chance it could come together. So, here’s everything we know about the as-yet-unproduced sequel to The Adventures of Tintin.
Peter Jackson Initially Planned To Direct The Sequel After Finishing The Hobbit Trilogy
After Steven Spielberg directed the first Tintin movie, Peter Jackson was attached to direct the second, as reported by Collider. He planned to start working on the sequel after completing his adaptation of The Hobbit, which had ballooned from a two-parter directed by Guillermo del Toro into an eight-hour trilogy directed by Jackson himself.
Jackson completed The Hobbit trilogy seven years ago with 2014’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In the meantime, Jackson has worked on several awesome non-Tintin projects, like the documentaries They Shall Not Grow Old and The Beatles: Get Back.
Jamie Bell Is Signed On To Reprise His Role In A Sequel
Syfy.com mentions that Jamie Bell has confirmed that he’s signed on to appear in a Tintin sequel and that work is underway on a script and he’s just waiting for the call to go and shoot the performance capture for the animation.
In the time that Bell has been waiting to start working on a Tintin sequel, he’s starred in yet another failed attempt at launching a franchise: 2015’s Fant4stic. He also gave a revelatory turn as songwriter Bernie Taupin in the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman, one of his best movies to date.
Author Anthony Horowitz Worked On Early Drafts Of The Script
Anthony Horowitz is primarily known as an author. He created the Alex Rider character and was selected by the Ian Fleming estate to write official James Bond novels. But he also occasionally works as a screenwriter. He’s penned episodes of Poirot and Midsomer Murders and was initially hired to write the Tintin sequel.
Horowitz worked on a script that introduced Professor Calculus from the books, but he later confirmed in a web chat with The Guardian that he was no longer working on the project and his script had been scrapped.
Steven Spielberg Would Fill The Role Jackson Filled On The First Movie
Steven Spielberg directed the first Tintin movie while Peter Jackson produced it. The plan for the sequel was for Jackson to take a turn as the visionary steering the ship in the director’s chair and Spielberg to take a turn overseeing the whole thing as a producer.
As Spielberg explained and was reported by Express, “Peter Jackson is going to direct ... he’s directing it after he does The Hobbit and I’ll produce it with him, as he’s produced this with me.”
Thompson And Thompson Had “A Much Bigger Role”
Tintin’s detective friends Thompson and Thompson were played by Cornetto duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the first Tintin movie. They had a decidedly supporting role in that story, but according to Spielberg and mentioned in the same Express article above, “The Thompson Twins have a much bigger role in the next Tintin movie.”
At the same time that Pegg was offered the role in Tintin, Quentin Tarantino offered him a role in Inglourious Basterds, so as Indiewire reports, he had to choose between working with Tarantino and working with Spielberg.
Andy Serkis Would Return As Captain Haddock
While Tintin himself is the focus of the Tintin stories, it wouldn’t be the same without his hard-boozing sidekick Captain Haddock. Andy Serkis offered a hilarious take on Haddock in the first Tintin movie and he told Cinemablend that he would return for a sequel: “We have had vague conversations, yeah. I think there is absolutely hope that there will be another one.”
While Serkis has many great movies under his belt as an actor, he has since started directing his own films, including Breathe and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, and he’s about to release his first big-budget VFX-laden blockbuster, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. So, if Jackson isn’t up to directing the Tintin sequel anymore, Serkis might be able to take his place.
Filmmakers Have Chosen Which Books To Adapt (But Spielberg Won’t Reveal Which Ones)
It was first reported that a Tintin sequel would adapt The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun, but this was later clarified to be the plan for the third movie, with a potential fourth movie taking Tintin to the Moon.
Spielberg has since revealed, as reported in the Times of India, that the filmmakers have chosen which books they want to adapt in the first sequel, but refused to name them: “We know which books we’re making. We can’t share that now, but we’re combining two books which were always intended to be combined by [Tintin creator] Hergé.”
It’s Still A Possibility
Although Tintin fans have been waiting for a sequel for a whole decade now, the filmmakers haven’t given up hope and have continually reinforced that Tintin 2 is still a possibility. Jackson confirmed in a press event in 2018 to Polygon that he’s still interested in directing the sequel, but clarified that a script has yet to be written.
In the same year, Spielberg was even more enthusiastic to Premiere France, saying: “If all goes well, [Jackson] will soon start working on the script. As it takes two years of animation work on the film ... I would not expect to see it for about three years. But Peter will stick to it. Tintin is not dead!”