20-Year-Old Nicolas Cage Movie Getting Sequel With Star & Director Returning

A 20-year-old Nicolas Cage movie is receiving a surprise sequel with the star returning to reprise his role and Bill Skarsgård cast as his son.

Lord of War is officially receiving a sequel with Nicolas Cage and its original director returning. Known for his wide range of performances over the years, Cage starred in the 2005 crime thriller, which was written and directed by The Truman Show‘s Andrew Niccol, as a Ukrainian-American illegal arms dealer who does business internationally. Lord of War was released to largely positive reviews and made $72 million at the box office, though there was virtually no talk of a potential sequel in the preceding years.

Now, Lord of War is receiving a surprise sequel with both Cage and Niccol returning, Variety reports. Cage will of course reprise his role as the morally compromised arms dealer Yuri Orlov with It and John Wick: Chapter 4‘s Bill Skarsgård also joining the cast as his illegitimate son, Anton, who is described as “a chip off the old block.” Naturally, the sequel’s title will be pluralized to Lords Of War, which is expected to begin production in the fall of 2023. See what Niccol said about the sequel below:

There is so much more to explore with these characters. Plato said it best – “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” I’m looking forward to spending more time in the company of the charming devil that is Yuri Orlov and now his illegitimate son – who turns out to not be legitimate in any way.

What Will The Lord of War Sequel Be About?

According to a plot description, Lords of War will find Yuri as “the world’s most notorious gunrunner, as he discovers that he has a son” who has followed in his father’s footsteps and is “amassing a mercenary army to fight America’s Middle East conflicts.” The synopsis saying that Yuri “discovers that he has a son” and Niccol specifying he is an “illegitimate son” would seem to indicate that Anton is a different son than Yuri and his wife, supermodel Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), had in the original movie.

Though Lord of War was largely based on the exploits of the real-life arms dealer Viktor Bout, it appears the sequel will invent an entirely new story involving a bitter intergenerational rivalry between Yuri and his son Anton. On the other hand, Yuri’s real-life counterpart was never known to have a rivalry with his son. With Cage returning for Lords of War, there is a chance that Ethan Hawke’s idealistic Interpol Agent Jack Valentine, who pursued Yuri in the original movie, could also return for the sequel.

Of all the Nicolas Cage movies to choose from, it’s unclear why Lord of War is receiving a sequel. Perhaps it has to do with the 2005 film’s intelligent examination of the illicit gun trade which was praised by critics and received the endorsement of the human rights group Amnesty International. Nearly 20 years later, the issue of illegal arms trafficking remains as important as ever, especially in light of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Source: ScreenRant