It’s an inevitable trend within the larger entertainment industry that a successful movie eventually results in a sequel continuation.
Sometimes, these sequels might live up to or even surpass the quality of the original, as happens to be the case for 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day or 2008’s The Dark Knight.
Sadly, this rare phenomenon does not apply to any of the Jaws sequels, all of which failed to live up to the critical esteem and popularity of the original 1977 horror thriller.
In the case of Jaws‘s immediate follow-up, director Steven Spielberg (who famously received his breakthrough directing credit courtesy of the original film) revealed on The Rewatchables podcast that he was actually approached with the opportunity to direct Jaws 2.
Pointedly, the 79-year-old Schindler’s List director said that he flat-out refused to return to the franchise, mainly due to the fact that he believed there was little story potential following the wake of Jaws.
Above all else, Spielberg said that, because the titular shark died at the end of the first film, the chance that a similarly massive shark would invade the same small town was next to impossible.
“They tried to get me to make it,” Spielberg said on the podcast. “And I kept saying, ‘We blew the shark up, guys! We blew the shark up. It’s unmakeable. The shark got blown up.’ And they said, ‘Well, there’s other sharks.’ There are no other sharks 26-feet long! Only Jaws.”
Interestingly, Spielberg’s indifference to the idea of a Jaws sequel resulted in the director avoiding Jaws 2 for decades after the movie’s release.
“I didn’t even see it,” the Indiana Jones filmmaker said. “I didn’t see it for 20 years.”
In spite of Jaws 2‘s middling critical success, it nevertheless proved to be a box office smash hit, paving the way for two universally panned sequels, Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge.