How Jaws 2’s Shark Almost Became The Third Movie’s Villain

Jaws 2’s shark villain ends the movie quite dead – which didn’t stop the studio from wanting to bring the beast back for Jaws 3D. While franchises are a major part of the movie business now, in the 1970s they were relatively rare outside of the James Bond series. The original Jaws was such a major blockbuster it was almost a given Universal would try a follow-up, and while it’s nowhere near the masterpiece of Spielberg’s original, Jaws 2 is a fun slasher movie in its own way.

The movie’s success led to a greenlight for a third movie, which famously started life as a parody titled Jaws 3, People 0. The studio later soured on the idea of making fun of their golden goose (or shark) and opted for a more straightforward sequel. Roy Scheider, who had a miserable time making Jaws 2, refused to return again so the action moved to an aquatic park in Florida. Dennis Quaid was cast Chief Brody’s son Mike, who inexplicably has to deal with yet another killer shark. The movie was also shot in 3D to cash in on the fad but while the film made money, it received terrible reviews for its leaden pacing, dull characters and some poor special effects.

There are actually two sharks featured in Jaws 3D; a baby that accidentally swims into the park and dies when captured, and its vengeful, 35-foot long mother. The sequel features no returning stars from the original, though Universal originally wanted the title character to be a shark audiences had previously encountered. An early draft for the third movie was penned by I Am Legend author Richard Matheson, who revealed in an interview that the studio wanted him to bring back the shark who attacked Amity Island in Jaws 2.

In the second film, another shark arrives at Amity and starts eating unlucky islanders. Jaws 2’s second half sees a bunch of teenagers – including young Mike Brody – stalked by the creature too, and Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody eventually tricks it into biting down on a power line. This thoroughly electrocutes and fries the shark in the finale, but in an interview with Fangoria magazine close to the third movie’s release, Matheson recalled with wry amusement the studio wanted to bring the same shark back for Jaws 3D.

Putting aside the logic that the shark could have survived its electrocution in Jaws 2 – or that it swam from Amity in New England to Florida afterward – there would be little story sense in bringing it back. The reason this was even suggested was likely to strengthen ties between the sequels, but as Matheson stated, saner heads prevailed. Not that it helped the reviews of the Jaws 3D that much,

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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