Why Dog Soldiers 2 Never Got Made

Despite being a cult hit and critical darling, director Neil Marshall’s 2002 werewolf flick Dog Soldiers never received its promised sequel. Dog Soldiers was Marshall’s debut feature, which kicked off what has been an eventful career for him as a director, mostly within the horror genre. Marshall would hit probably his highest high with 2005 hit The Descent, and probably most recently his lowest low with 2019’s Hellboy reboot, a critical and commercial flop. Marshall has also spent time on the small screen, directing episodes of such hit shows as Game of Thrones, Hannibal, and Westworld.

Horror has a disturbing lack of truly excellent werewolf films, even though the werewolf is one of pop culture’s most enduring monsters. While not on the level of an iconic classic like An American Werewolf in London or The Wolf Man, Dog Soldiers comfortably sits on the level of great, alongside movies like Ginger Snaps and Wolf, starring screen legend Jack Nicholson.

Dog Soldiers tells the tale of a group of soldiers taking part in a routine exercise in the woods of Scotland, only to encounter a pack of werewolves formidable enough to make these military men fear desperately for their lives. A sequel has been teased many times in the years since Dog Soldiers released, but sadly, the project kept stumbling out of the starting gate.

Why Dog Soldiers 2 Never Got Made

Dog Soldiers 2, reportedly titled Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat, was first announced as in development by producer David E. Allen in early 2004. Curiously, Neil Marshall wasn’t said to be involved, and in more recent years has stated that those who control the rights to Dog Soldiers weren’t interested in working with him on a sequel. Sadly, it’s never been revealed exactly why that is. The sequel, such as it was, was to be directed by Andy Armstrong and written by Eric Miller. Dog Soldiers 2 was planned to begin filming that spring, but needless to say, that never happened.

Evidence points to creative disagreement being the culprit, as by 2005, Armstrong was out as director, and Michael J. Bassett was in. By 2006, Bassett was also out, and Rob Green was in. Yet, years went by without any further updates. Producer Allen then tried to launch a Dog Soldiers web-series in 2011, titled Dog Soldiers: Legacy, while also insisting that Dog Soldiers 2 was still in the works. In 2014, a teaser poster for the sequel was released, getting fans’ hopes up again for nothing. There have been no further updates on the project since, but clearly Allen just can’t seem to get the necessary ducks in a row to finally move forward with Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat. For his part, Marshall said in 2015 that he had always wanted to make Dog Soldiers the start of a trilogy, but since he doesn’t own the rights, he’s at the mercy of those who do, and thus doesn’t ever foresee a sequel actually happening.

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