Jaws turns 50 this year, a film that spawned the age of the summer blockbuster, and one that has made hundreds of people question if it’s safe to go back in the water ever since. The golden anniversary of the film has renewed interest not only in the original, flawless classic, but in its follow-up sequels as well, each progressively worse than the one before it. In fact, 1987’s Jaws: The Revenge was so critically reviled that it ended up killing the franchise outright. As such, 1978’s Jaws 2 is the Citizen Kane of the sequels, bringing back Roy Scheider‘s Chief Brody to confront a new shark that has set itself up in the waters of Amity. The film was directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who was not the original director associated with the film. That would be John D. Hancock. The one name that isn’t associated with Jaws 2 is the director of the first film, Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg, and there’s a good reason why.
The Production of ‘Jaws’ Ruined Spielberg’s Return for ‘Jaws 2’
Jaws was a veritable phenomenon upon release, making millions of dollars (current worldwide box office is $484,351,938), earning multiple Oscar nominations, and legitimizing Spielberg as one of Hollywood’s best young directors. Not bad for what was only his fifth film. Needless to say, Universal wanted to make a sequel, and quickly. David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck, the producers of the original, stayed on board, as did Scheider. Brown and Zanuck reached out to Spielberg about returning, too, but he didn’t even respond to their offer. Spielberg felt he’d already made the definitive shark movie with Jaws (SPOILER: he did), further adding that, “making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick.”
Case closed? Not really. Given the director has played “cheap carny tricks” multiple times since then, helming the first three sequels in the Indiana Jones franchise and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, there had to be another reason. Sure enough, there was, and it makes perfect sense. Years later, Spielberg confirmed the real reason why he didn’t return:
“[I didn’t come back for the Jaws sequels] because making the first movie was a nightmare. There were endless problems with the shark and it was an impossible shoot. I thought my career was over because no one had ever taken a movie 100 days over schedule.”
“Nightmare” doesn’t even describe the traumatic experience Spielberg had with making Jaws. Filming on the ocean was harder than anticipated; the entire screenplay was rewritten during filming, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss hated each other, and, indeed, there were endless problems with the shark. Things were so bad, the experience left Spielberg with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he cited his fear of returning to the water as the real reason, saying, “I would have done the sequel if I hadn’t had such a horrible time at sea on the first film.”
‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ Put the Nail in the Coffin for Spielberg’s Return for ‘Jaws 2’
According to Joseph McBride‘s “Steven Spielberg: A Biography,” Spielberg didn’t fully close the door on a sequel. After firing Hancock, Zanuck and Brown had trouble trying to find another director to take on the project. During that time, they received a call from Spielberg, who was in post-production on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Whether it was a sense of obligation, responsibility, or some other reason, Spielberg offered to take over after hearing the problems they were having, and spent the weekend of July 4, 1977, working on an idea. He pitched a prequel based on the events of the USS Indianapolis, a dramatization of Robert Shaw’s iconic monologue in Jaws.
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It’s time to go back in the water.
It didn’t pan out, with Universal unwilling to wait a year for Spielberg to complete the work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which likely prompted huge relief from the director, maybe with a “what the hell was I thinking?” thrown in for good measure. That did close the door on Spielberg’s involvement, and, after rejecting a darker script that had Amity’s reputation in ruins after the first film, and another shark, they settled on a “lighter” script, the Jaws 2 we know and don’t outright hate.
It’s disappointing to know that the studio was more content to cash in on the success of Jaws rather than wait for Spielberg, but hardly surprising. The idea of a USS Indianapolis-centered prequel, especially with Spielberg behind it, sounds amazing, and different enough that it wouldn’t have been a retread of the same story, like Jaws 2 essentially is, but rather one that builds on it. While it’s doubtful Spielberg would revisit it, the advancement in technology since then would make it very easy to create the film without even going near the water, so perhaps there’s still hope that Spielberg can restore the legacy of his aquatic masterpiece after all.
