“We’ve got twins!”
Those words, delivered with a mixture of terror and excitement, tell viewers all they need to know about the chaos and carnage that a group of storm chasers is about to encounter in “Twisters,” a follow-up to the 1996 box office hit “Twister.” The disaster film aired its first trailer during the Super Bowl. Starring Glen Powell, who plays a self-described “tornado wrangler,” and Daisy Edgar-Jones as a scientist, the film is set for a July 19 release.
Billed as a “new chapter” of the original, the film is directed by Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung, known for his film “Minari,” which shared an agricultural setting and little else with “Twisters.” Along with Powell and Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack and Maura Tierney round out the cast.
Powell is channeling a charismatic daredevil in the first look, declaring, “You don’t face your fears. You ride ’em.” And there’s a lot to be fearful about on this turbulent ride — farms are destroyed, cars are sliced apart, towns are leveled, people are tossed through the air and livestock is propelled into orbit. Nothing is safe as the tornadoes cut a vicious path through Middle America.
Though plot details had previously been kept under wraps, Powell told Vogue the new film is “definitely not a reboot.”
“We’re not trying to recreate the story from the first one,” Powell said. “It’s a completely original story. There are no characters from the original movie back, so it’s not really a continuation. It’s just its own standalone story in the modern day.”
He continued, “I don’t think anyone has brought up this movie in forever, but talking to people, they’re like, ‘That was one of my favorite movies growing up. That movie terrified me.’”
The 1996 original “Twister” starred Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Carey Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and made nearly $500 million at the box office. It landed Oscar nods in the visual effects and sound categories. Jan De Bont directed the film from a screenplay by Michael Crichton, with Steven Spielberg executive producing.
Hunt revealed in 2021 that she developed an idea for a “Twister” sequel — which fell through.
“I tried to get it made,” Hunt said. “With Daveed [Diggs] and Rafael [Casal] and me writing it, and all Black and brown storm chasers, and they wouldn’t do it. I was going to direct it… We could barely get a meeting, and this is in June of 2020 when it was all about diversity. It would have been so cool.”
“Twisters” wasn’t the only Hollywood movie to use the Super Bowl as a launching pad. Viewers also got a look at “Wicked,” the big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, and “Deadpool 3,” which finds Ryan Reynolds’ costumed hero teaming up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Watch the full trailer for “Twisters” below.
