Summary
- The Meg movie series takes creative liberties with Steven Alten’s book series, including changes to romantic aspects and the Megalodon’s name, but stays true to the primary story developments.
- Jason Statham’s first Meg movie adapted the first book, and there are still six more books in Alten’s series that could be adapted for future movies.
- Despite mixed reviews, the success of Meg 2: The Trench at the box office indicates a likelihood of Meg 3 and more movies in the franchise, potentially including other novels in the same universe.
Since The Meg and Meg 2: The Trench‘s success has left viewers wondering whether the franchise will continue with more sequels, here is a breakdown of how many more of the original Meg books the Jason Statham movie series can adapt. Despite being adaptions of Steven Alten’s book series of the same name, The Meg movies take several creative liberties to enhance their action and drama. For instance, unlike the second movie, where Jason Statham’s Jonas does not have a love interest, the second installment of the book series portrays him as a married man.
Other than the romantic aspects of Jonas’ narrative, the movies also bring a few technical changes to the novels’ storylines, with one change being the name of the Megalodon in Meg 2: The Trench. However, despite these changes, the movies stay true to the narrative structures and primary story developments of the novels, and each installment of the movie franchise only adapts one book. Given the movie series’ loyalty to the source, it is hard not to wonder how many more books from Steven Alten’s series can the potential sequels adapt.
Jason Statham Can Make Six More Meg Movies (At Least)
The first Meg movie adapted Steve Alten’s first novel, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, which was published in 1997. Meg 2: The Trench took on the story of the second installment in Steve Allen’s Meg book series. Since the second book’s release in 1999, Steven Allen has written five new Meg novels: Meg: Primal Waters (2004), Meg: Hell’s Aquarium (2009), Meg: Origins (2011), Meg: Nightstalkers (2016) and, Meg: Generations (2020). An eighth installment for the book series, Meg: Purgatory, is also scheduled to be released in 2024, leaving six books worth of source material content for future Meg movies.
Meg 3 & More Movies Look Likely After The Trench’s Success
The Meg stands at a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47%, which is not too bad, given that it is a typical popcorn action flick thriving on cheesy one-liners and slam-bang CGI-fueled sequences. However, Meg 2: The Trend further downgraded the franchise’s rating by earning only a 28% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite being panned by critics, though, Meg 2: The Trench became a box office success after grossing $386,402,000. What makes its performance even more surprising is that, even after facing stiff competition from Barbie and Oppenheimer, Meg 2: The Trench managed to have a strong enough hold on the box office.
Although no official confirmations surrounding Meg 3‘s release have been made so far, its likelihood seems high after Meg 2: The Trench‘s success. The box office numbers from both Meg movies have also paved the way for more installments in the franchise that could adapt other Steven Allen novels. For instance, the author’s 2005 novel The Loch is set in the same universe as the Meg series, making it an interesting addition to the movie franchise. Allen also wrote a crossover novel, Vostok, which served as a sequel to The Loch and prequel to Meg: Nightstalkers. If The Meg franchise continues to show promise, all of these books could become movies someday.