2017's fantasy action movie Bright might not have set critics' hearts ablaze, but Netflix was so happy with its audience figures (which, of course, aren't ever officially released) that it threw a sequel into motion. Now we know that stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton will be back, but director David Ayer has stepped away, with Louis Leterrier taking over calling the shots.
According to Deadline, there's no acrimony, just Ayer having a loaded schedule, including a rewrite on the Dirty Dozen he's directing for Warners and a few other projects bubbling away at Netflix itself. Ayer wrote the original draft of the Bright sequel with Evan Spiliotopoulos, which has since seen a new version from TS Nowlin.
Bright crafted a world where fantasy creatures co-exist with people, though not exactly easily following a war many years in the past. The story sees Smith's human officer Ward teamed with Edgerton's orc Jakoby. Ward isn't particularly thrilled with the arrangement, but is trying to make the best of it. The partners are forced to work together more closely when a seemingly random call brings them into contact with something much more dangerous: a magical relic of those past wars, a weapon that could be devastating in the wrong hands. The sequel would see the mismatched cops take their developing comradeship and mission to an international stage. All being well, it should be ready to shoot once productions are possible again as studios and production facilities start to open up again.
Leterrier has experience with Netflix, having made all the episodes of The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance miniseries.