Steven Soderbergh Working on Spiritual Sequel to ‘Contagion’

Contagion came out nearly ten years ago, but the pandemic thriller became one of 2020’s most-discussed films as the coronavirus pandemic entered the United States. The original film was directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven), written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum), and stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow. The film revolves around a contagious and deadly virus outbreak, and how society collapses due to it. The film has eerie similarities to the current pandemic, including both outbreaks originating most likely from an infected bat, killing millions of victims who suffered from flu-like symptoms, as well as the discussion of social distancing.

According to IndieWire, Soderberg confirmed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that a “spiritual” sequel to Contagion is in the making: “I’ve got a project in development that Scott Burns is working with me on, that’s a kind of philosophical sequel to ‘Contagion,’ but in a different context. You’ll kind of look at the two of them as kind of paired, but very different hair colors. So, Scott and I had been talking about, ‘So, what’s the next iteration of a ‘Contagion’-type story?’ We have been working on that; we should probably hot-foot it a little bit.” There is little on the exact plot or if original actors will return to the sequel, but it will be interesting to see how this film will be perceived after hitting so close to home.