Mark Wahlberg's Mile 22 Movie Already Has a Sequel in the Works

Screen Rant

Mark Wahlberg's Mile 22 Already Has a Sequel in the Works

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Jun 25, 2018

STX recruits a writer to start writing the sequel to director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg's upcoming thriller, Mile 22.

STX is already developing a sequel to director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg's latest thriller, Mile 22. Berg and Wahlberg have previously worked together on a trilogy of true story-based thrillers that includes Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day. However, for their fourth effort together, Berg returns to the type of fictional international thriller that he hasn't made since The Kingdom in 2007. For Wahlberg, Mile 22 is also a return to fiction, after his turn late last year in director Ridley Scott's docudrama, All the Money in the World.

Mile 22 stars Wahlberg as James Silva, an U.S. intelligence agent who is tasked with protecting a foreign police officer with vital information. The Raid's Iko Uwais stars as the officer in question, Li Noor, while The Walking Dead's Lauren Cohan and MMA superstar Ronda Rousey play members of Silva's elite task force. The Mile 22 trailer paints the film as being more of a crowd-pleaser than Wahlberg and Berg's docu-thrillers, and it's all the clearer now that STX's ambitions here go beyond a single movie.

According to THR, STX has recruited Umair Aleem (Extraction) to start working on the script for a Mile 22 sequel, ahead of the movie's release this August. The outlet further notes that STX intended for Mile 22 to become a multimedia brand from the get-go, and even hopes to launch television and VR spinoffs down the line. Mile 22 seems to have a relatively modest budget, so STX's hope could be to launch a mid-range franchise that's comparable to something like John Wick, in that regard.

With his Transformers days now behind him, Wahlberg has been taking steps to get a new franchise off the ground and running. He's been attached to star in The Six Billion Dollar Man for a few years, but that film has since been delayed until 2020, after going through multiple changes in director. Should Mile 22 becomes a commercial success, it's possible that Wahlberg will prioritize development on a sequel over Six Billion Dollar Man and may even step away from that reboot altogether. Berg, who was set direct Six Billion Dollar Man at one point, will presumably give serious thought to returning for the Mile 22 sequel, should that happen.

It remains to be seen how receptive (or not) the general masses are to Mile 22, but all three of Berg and Wahlberg's previous films together have been well-received. The pair seem to have gotten a firm grip on how to blend terse action set pieces with human drama and overtly political subject matter, after three movies so far. Assuming that remains true with their latest offering, filmgoers and critics alike may even find themselves asking for a sequel by the time the end credits on Mile 22 are done rolling.