With its post-apocalyptic ending, the French shark movie “Under Paris” doesn’t necessarily lend itself — narratively speaking — to a sequel. But after scoring the best launch for a non-English language film on Netflix with more than 102.3 million views, filmmaker Xavier Gens is plotting a new underwater adventure, Variety has confirmed.
Key cast members — those who were not swallowed by sharks — will return, including Oscar-nominated “The Artist” actor Bérénice Bejo, who stars as a grieving activist alongside Nassim Lyes (“Mayhem!”) as a cop.
In a recent interview with La Tribune, Bejo claimed the sequel will start filming in September 2025. While sources close to the production confirmed to Variety that the project is indeed in development, it’s still in the early stages and shooting could start as late as 2026.
Released on Netflix June 5 in the run-up to the Paris Olympics, “Under Paris” captured the spirit of the time with its satirical plot revolving around triathlon athletes who get devoured during a swimming race in the Seine. The political dimension of the movie, which saw the Mayor of Paris shrugging at safety concerns for the sake of economic interests and publicity, also struck a chord. In reality, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo drew some backlash with her pledge to clean up the river enough that athletes and visitors would be able to swim in it during the Olympics.
With the sporting competition in the rearview mirror, the sequel might take a completely different avenue and dig deeper into genre, along the lines of later scenes in “Under Paris” that take place in the Catacombs. When Gens talked to Variety about the prospect of a sequel back in June, he said that if one was made, “it will take place in a Paris that is entirely submerged under water.”
“Under Paris” remains to date the second most watched non-English film on Netflix, behind “Troll.” The movie has earned harsh criticism in France where local genre movies seldom fare well, but it’s been an international hit. It was even praised by horror master Stephen King, who admitted on X that he initially thought it “would be a jokey movie, like ‘Sharknado’” and found it it “really quite good.”
Gens, who said he was inspired by “Don’t Look Up,” previously told Variety that he struggled to get “Under Paris” financed in the traditional circuit where genre movies tend to have tiny budgets. “People in France didn’t dare touch it,” he said, “because folks assumed that shark movies could only be made by Americans or Koreans.” With Netflix on board, “Under Paris” eventually got made with a budget in the €15-to-€20 million range ($16 million-$21 million). The next opus might get a larger budget considering the global success of the first movie, which was penned by Gens, Maud Heywang and Yannick Dahan.
Gens had worked with Netflix before, directing episodes of “Lupin,” the streamer’s other smash hit. He is best known as a director of genre movies such as 2007’s “Hitman” and “Mayhem!”
