Steven Soderbergh Wants To Make “Terrifying” Post-COVID ‘Contagion’ Sequel Without Being “Irresponsible”

Nearly 15 years and a worldwide pandemic later, Steven Soderbergh has considered revisiting one of his most relevant titles.

The Oscar-winning director recently teased a followup to his 2011 public health thriller Contagionnoting he wants to be “responsible” with the post-COVID sequel without making it “feel predictable.”

“We talk about it and have come up with some terrifying ideas. There would have to be, I think, a plot that doesn’t feel predictable,” he told The Guardian following conversations with pandemic experts.

“I don’t want to torture people. There are scenarios that you could come up with that I would categorise as irresponsible,” added Soderbergh. “You know, that I would go, ‘That’s a big idea, but I’m not sure I want to put that idea out there, frankly.’ I do think about that.”

Featuring a star-studded ensemble, Contagion stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Beth Emhoff, a business woman who suddenly falls ill upon her return from a work trip to Hong Kong, dying two days later. As doctors struggle to determine the cause of her illness, a global pandemic erupts.

The film also stars Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Elliott Gould, Demetri Martin, Sanaa Lathan and Jennifer Ehle.

After Contagion saw a renewed popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Soderbergh revealed he had a “philosophical sequel” in the works with original screenwriter Scott Z. Burns.

“I’ve got a project in development that Scott Burns is working with me on, that’s a kind of philosophical sequel to Contagionbut in a different context,” said Soderbergh on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in December 2020. “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.”