‘Twister’ Sequel Is Not a Continuation of Original’s Story

At some point, the original plan for Twisters was to make a sequel to Twister, the 1996 disaster movie that became a surprise smash, and the second biggest film of the year, behind only Independence Day. But plans changed, as they so often do in Hollywood. Twisters is still happening. It is still nominally connected to Twister. But apparently it is now not “a continuation of the original.”

That’s according to writer Mark L. Smith, who penned the screenplay for the movie for director Lee Isaac Chung. Smith revealed in an interview that he originally worked on the project with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, who had the first pitch for Twisters. (Rumors from around that time had it that the movie would follow a daughter of the characters played in Twister by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.) Then Kosinski dropped out to make an F1 movie with Brad Pitt. That’s when Lee Isaac Chung got involved.

Smith told Collider...

[Chung] did his own thing to the script a little bit because that's what they do, so I don't know about some of the changes exactly. So, I don’t know the details, but it's a separate story. It's not a continuation of the original. But it's just a real wild ride with some good, fun characters. Hopefully, we can tap into what the original had because that thing is just iconic. But it's so cool to have a director like Isaac taking on something like this. It's just so out of his norm, and I think he's having fun. I was texting with him a couple days ago, and it's just all craziness of it.

Universal

The cast of Twisters include Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Maura Tierney, Kiernan Shipka and future Superman, David Corenswet. At this point, at least, Hunt is not expected to appear in the film. (Paxton passed away in 2017.)

Twisters is scheduled to open in theaters on July 19, 2024.