If you watched Director Na Hong-jin‘s new sci-fi film, Hope, you likely have a bunch of questions swirling inside your mind palace over the bonkers display of pure filmmaking you witnessed for nearly three hours. While many of those questions begin and end with “WTF did I just watch?” one question on everyone’s mind, whether they loved the film or not, is whether there are plans for a sequel. io9 got the lowdown from Na and Hope standout Hoyeon about the odds that the instant-cult classic movie is bound for a sequel.
Hope starts out unassuming enough as far as creature-feature feasting at the throne of Bong Joon Ho’s The Host go. A sleepy remote village is plagued by some mysterious evil that its cops, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and rookie officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon), and local hunter Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) initially believe to be a bear or tiger. Turns out, it’s aliens. From there, the film goes from zero to 100, shifting from a tension-fueled, don’t-see-the-monster experience cinema hasn’t seen since Jaws to Jordan Peele/Zach Cregger-style dark humor, and capping off with an action-packed Mad Max car chase that never lifts its foot off the gas.
While the film received mixed reviews at Cannes for its off-the-rails storytelling and janky CGI creature designs, Hope quickly became an internet darling. Amid all the meme posting about the film and wildfire word-of-mouth recommendations, folks went to check it out for themselves; Hope mania has a burning desire for it to become enough of a box office success so its “Oh, it’s over?” ending leads to more films. io9 asked Hoyeon and Na whether or not the film’s ending was intended as sequel bait, and whether plans are in motion for Hope to become a trilogy. Spoilers, duh.
The end of Hope feels like franchise-building done backward. After a string of chase scenes, the movie’s final act lore-dumps like crazy about its extraterrestrials, played by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton. Key among its backstory is the revelation that the aliens are space refugees of some sort, and their rampage in Hope Harbor is spurred by a local taxidermist’s kidnapping of their crown prince. Instead of extraterrestrials causing mayhem for no apparent reason, Hope flips the script by making them as much victims as its humans are, thanks to a cosmic misunderstanding. Whoopsie dasie.
Rather than having Hope wrap up with its aliens and humans reconciling the differences, Hope goes bigger. The film concludes with a gargantuan spaceship crash-landing into a mountain; Bum-seok, Sung-ae, and Sung-ki running for their lives on a highway; and Fassbender’s alien ripping his heart from his chest as Vikander’s alien proclaims she wants to witness a miracle. Credits. Understandably, the whole WTF nature of Hope‘s ending comes part and parcel with how the film doesn’t explain the who and what of its aliens so much as leave just enough context clues about their backstory. But if you’re among moviegoers curious about the aliens’ deal, here’s a quick rundown that sheds a bit more light on the lore of Hope‘s aliens.
According to Hope‘s press notes, Fassbender’s brawling warrior alien, Ma’veyyo, is a legendary warrior from a war-born race hailing from the planet Gh’ertu. He’s charged with protecting Queen J’aur (Vikander), her lady-in-waiting Ai’dovor (Russell), Hope Harbor’s first alien sighting, the rampaging Va’migere (Britton), and crown prince K’arli. Evidently, whatever calamity the aliens were fleeing from on Gh’ertu followed them across the stars in the Avengers-level-threat spaceship, carving a crater in a mountainside and leaving them and Hope‘s surviving human ensemble hoping for a better future. Ba-dum-tss.
Understandably, all of the above—both in context and out of context—sounds more like the second act of a trilogy than the launching-point of a sequel. Speaking with Na, much of that comes down to what he cut from the film’s script, which would’ve explored the events leading up to and following what transpires in Hope.
“At first, the script that I wrote was a very long story that included what you would call the sequel to this current movie. When I was trying to include all of that story within the movie, I realized that the pacing would be too fast. There would be too much story stuffed into one film. I did consider if I should make it into two, three, or even four different movies as I was writing and shooting the film,” Na said. “But what we ended up with for Hope is—I think if I included the story that I had before and after what we see on the screen—I thought it might end up feeling a bit too repetitive. It was more important to feel more complete as a single movie more than anything else.”
He continued, “The ending is an open ending that makes you curious about what comes after, but I also wanted to make sure the ending is fine as it is on its own. As far as plans for the sequel, I don’t know what’s next. I’ll have to see how things unfold and decide if I could move on to a sequel.”
After Hoyeon’s first meeting with Na, which led to him giving her the script for Hope and telling the Squid Game alum she was born to play its badass heroine, Sung-ae, she recounted another meeting where he described the film’s entire universe, with Hope being the first act in its three-act story.
“The first chapter is about the human perspective. The second chapter is about the alien perspective. I think [Hope‘s] ending bridges to the alien perspective of this universe. And it’s all happening at night,” Hoyeon said, making sure to be extra careful not to reveal what her gun-toting character might be up to in a potential sequel. Hoyeon did share that Hope‘s potential sequel would take place at night to contrast with the original film, which sees its humans and aliens duke it out during the day.
Evidently, Neon was confident Hope would be a hit. Along with being the highest-budget South Korean movie in history, with a budget of roughly $44 million, Neon also secured 1,500 theaters for Hope‘s premiere, making it the widest domestic theatrical release for a Korean film since Bong’s Parasite. However, the film is off to a rough start at the box office. As of publication, Hope has raked in $5,273,855 domestically and $41,561,258 worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. That said, if Hope gets a sequel, Hoyeon says she’d be game to reprise her role as Sung-ae.
“Of course! Because I’m the one who knows the full story of this universe, I’m the fan of Hope 2,” she said. “If [Na] wants me to be in it, I’ll be in it.”
Hope is now playing in theaters.
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