Sam Hargrave: 'Extraction 2 has got to keep elevating the level of action'

Sam Hargrave has promised to up the ante in Extraction 2, declaring that he wants to elevate the stunt scenes in the action-thriller beyond its 2020 predecessor.

Telling Collider that shooting on the project will commence in late 2021, "COVID-pending", Hargrave contemplated that: "the beauty of all these different, great action films is they challenge filmmakers, myself included, to raise the bar."

"How are we going to raise the bar when there's a lot of movies that have come out," he asked, remarking: "even since Extraction, a lot of movies have come out and been pushing the envelope and we gotta push back. We gotta keep elevating the level of action."

Based on the graphic novel Ciudad by Ande Parks, Extraction portrays the adventures of Tyler Rake, a black-ops mercenary, played by Chris Hemsworth, who is expected to reprise the character in the follow-up.

Crediting screenwriters Joe and Anthony Russo with their talent for world-building, Hargrave teased that there may be even more to come from the Extraction franchise beyond the sequel.

"(The Russo Brothers) are building on that model in the Extraction universe and there is a lot of opportunity to follow characters that people have shown an affinity for and sounds like they want to know more about," he said.

However, Hargrave, who marked his directorial debut with Extraction, added that he didn't want to hog all possible future film opportunities for himself.

"I would like to be as involved as possible but I also don't want to be greedy," he admitted: "there's a lot of other super talented filmmakers out there who would have very unique visions and would bring something new and fresh to the franchise that I would be excited to see as a fan."