Mike Flanagan Wants To Develop A New Movie For Steven Spielberg's $845M Thriller Classic

Published Oct 11, 2026, 9:32 AM EDT

Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera

Following his adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, Mike Flanagan has his sights set on yet another classic.

Tackling a beloved classic is a daunting task, but Flanagan has more than proven that he's not afraid to jump headfirst into those choppy waters. Most recently, Flanagan has created Carrie, which has proven to be a smash-hit adaptation. Before that, Flanagan had taken on yet another King story, as he put out the Tom Hiddleston-led Life of Chuck in 2024—just one year after he'd adapted Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher into a star-studded miniseries. Now, Flanagan has expressed interest in another celebrated masterpiece, but he's aware of the limitations of such a project.

Responding to a Reddit AMA, Flanagan named the next major title he'd like to take on, saying, “Honestly, I wish to hell I could make a JAWS movie. Another example where no one will EVER get close to the original, but there is a ton of room for improvement on the sequels.” Notably, this is a slight shift from what Flanagan has done with the majority of his previous shows and movies thus far, as he's interested not in a full-fledged adaptation but in a sequel. This wouldn't be the first Jaws sequel, of course, but given that many have struggled to find the success of the first, this could still be a significant installment in the franchise.

In the 51 years since Jaws first hit theaters, the movie has been followed by multiple sequels, beginning with Jaws 2 in 1978, just a few years after the original. Jaws 3-D was added to the franchise in 1983, and Jaws: The Revenge rounded out the franchise in 1987. Unfortunately, none of the sequels really landed in the same way that the first Jaws did. As just one metric, whereas Jaws has a staggering 97% with critics and 98% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, the sequels have all failed to break even 60% with critics and audiences—Jaws: The Revenge has a jaw-dropping 2% with critics, and Jaws 3-D isn't much better at 10%.

It would, therefore, be no easy task for Flanagan to step in with yet another Jaws sequel and find success, but with his track record, he very well might be exactly the filmmaker that the larger franchise needs to get a revival that actually works. In fact, Flanagan has really made a career of taking classic stories, whether that's books or movies, and turning them into adaptations that win over even some of the most scrupulous naysayers.

Notably, Jaws also wasn't the only potential future project that Flanagan expressed interest in, as he also named a Jurassic Park movie as being on his list of movies he would love to make, saying, "A JURASSIC movie could be a blast too, I'd want to go really scary with it. A true dinosaur horror film would be a blast." For now, neither option seems to be concretely underway, but in the coming years, audiences may see Flanagan stepping into some fan-favorite franchises.