Will there be a Part 2 of Love and Monsters?

Love and Monsters 2 has yet to be confirmed despite the success of the first movie, which included an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects (it lost out to Tenet).

In the US, the monsterpocalypse film starring Dylan O'Brien (Maze Runner) was released on video-on-demand in October 2020, before the movie really started to pick up steam when it landed on Netflix everywhere else in April 2021.

We gave the movie four stars, in particular praising O'Brien's performance and, of course, the very good dog! The movie follows Joel (O'Brien) as he makes his way across the monster-laden land to find his high school girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick), and discovering more about himself along the way.

It certainly lends itself to a sequel and director Michael Matthews told Decider in October 2020 that there had been "some discussion about it".

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"I've got a few interesting ideas. But we did focus on this just being its own movie. It's not the approach of, 'How do we start a franchise?' It was really like, 'Let's make a cool movie! And then let's see what the response is'," he explained.

The response was great, but while we wait to see if Love and Monsters 2 is confirmed, here's everything you need to know about a potential sequel, including how the first movie sets it up.

Love and Monsters ending explained: How does it set up Love and Monsters 2?

The monsterpocalypse happened seven years prior to the events of the film, when a meteor headed to Earth was stopped by the world's nations sending rockets up and exploding it. Unfortunately, the rockets' chemicals rained down on the planet and caused all cold-blooded animals to mutate into giant and vicious monsters.

Now, people live in hidden isolated, often underground, colonies. Most of the movie takes place in the 'present' and follows Joel as he makes his way to the coast to find Aimee.

Towards the beginning of his journey, he meets a dog named Boy, whose original owner presumably died – though Boy carries her red dress with him everywhere. Boy joins Joel, and the pair meet another duo: Clyde (Michael Rooker, Guardians of the Galaxy) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt) who are heading for safety in the mountains where the cold and height keep them safe from most of the monsters.

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Clyde and Minnow, having lost their son and father respectively, teach Joel important lessons on how to survive. Eventually, they part ways as Joel continues west with Boy – but a deadly encounter, in which Boy nearly gets them killed, leads Joel to shout at the dog, and Boy runs away. Joel, on the verge of death, is rescued by none other than Aimee.

Though she's excited to see him, she confesses that she didn't really expect him to come and much has changed in the intervening years, including the death of someone to whom she was very close. In a surprising move, Joel accepts this, even acknowledging how ridiculous it was of him to come all that way without telling her first.

Aimee introduces him to her colony, but Joel has his suspicions which are eventually proven true when a newly-arrived survivor named Cap (no, not that one) reveals he's come to steal their supplies and escape on a yacht being pulled by a giant crab monster controlled via an electrified lead. A fight ensues, and Boy makes a heroic return to help.

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Joel and Aimee win when Joel, looking into the monster's eyes, deems him friendly, and lets him go, causing the crab to go after Cap and his minions, before disappearing into the water. Joel returns to his colony and helps them make their way towards the mountains, while Aimee leads her colony of elderly survivors there too.

The film ends with – surprise! – Clyde and Minnow in the snow-covered mountains, listening to Joel's rallying cry across the radio, encouraging the disparate colonies to venture above ground and head to the mountains where they all may survive together. Clyde and Minnow speculate on whether Joel will survive the trek, and the movie ends.

So clearly, there is plenty of room for a sequel. Joel and his colony have a long way to go, as does Aimee and hers. Meanwhile, there are hosts of other colonies across the USA in need of safety and presumably other countries too, as the monsters can travel by sea.

Love and Monsters 2 release date: When will Love and Monsters 2 be released?

Since the sequel has yet to be confirmed, we don't yet have a release date for the sequel, but we could take a guess based on the first movie.

The first movie shot from March-May 2019 and was originally planned to be released in cinemas in March 2020. That was before everything happened and the movie eventually made its VOD debut in October 2020.

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Should the sequel be confirmed this year, we could see it film in 2022 and a similar timeframe for production could see it land in early 2023. But it'd have to be confirmed first, so this is just speculation for now.

Love and Monsters 2 cast: Who's coming back for Love and Monsters 2?

The big returns would be Dylan O'Brien as Joel and Jessica Henwick as Aimee, but the really key one would be the return of Boy, the dog.

Quite frankly, without Boy, we're not interested in a sequel.

Assuming it follows on directly from the first movie, we should also see Michael Rooker back as Clyde and Ariana Greenblatt as Minnow, as well as people from Joel's colony such as Senie Priti's Karen.

Love and Monsters 2 trailer: Any Love and Monsters 2 footage yet?

Since it hasn't been confirmed, it won't be a surprise to learn it hasn't started filming yet, so any new footage will be a while away yet. Sorry about that.

Love and Monsters is now available to watch on Netflix.

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