Joe Russo teases ambitious plans for Extraction franchise, return of old characters

Quickly after its release in April, Extraction became Netflix's most watched original movie ever, and a sequel was promptly greenlit. Now, co-writer and producer Joe Russo -- best known for directing the third and fourth Avengers movies with his brother Anthony -- has given an update about Extraction 2.

In a virtual appearance at the CCXP -- the Brazilian Comic Con -- he said that they intend on kicking off production on the film around the fall of 2021. "Chris is a busy guy so we have to figure out his schedule, but that's the intent at the moment," he said.

According to Collider, Russo also teased the universe expansion that they're contemplating for the franchise. He said, "I'm still not gonna commit because I think it's more exciting to surprise people, but I will say this: we are working at building out a universe of films that could potentially explore some of the other characters from the first movie and some new characters, and see more historical interaction between the characters. So if you're interested in David Harbour's character, you just may get to see him in a future Extraction movie."

In the first film, which was partially shot in India, Chris Hemsworth played a black market mercenary who goes on a mission to rescue the kidnapped son of a gangster. During his mission, he meets an old ally and reunites with a crack team of specialists.

"We're trying to find more interesting ways to tell these stories and cross-pollinate them," Russo continued. "We're big fans of just forging new paths in narrative. Can we go backwards and forwards at the same time? Can things that happened in the past affect the movies in the present? What are new ways to tell those stories? And can we see different points of view? Every antagonist is the protagonist in their own story, so can we see their point of view? How do they perceive the world? What makes them empathetic? I think what makes that a compelling element to the Extraction universe is it is a global franchise telling global stories, and we'd like to diversify the point of view in those movies."

Directed by Sam Hargrave, Extraction featured several Indian actors such as Pankaj Tripathi, Priyanshu Painyulli, Randeep Hooda and Rudhraksh Jaiswal. Hemsworth won the People's Choice Award for The Action Movie Star of 2020.