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A new Twister sequel is spinning into theaters this July on the 2024 movie schedule, and if you’re a fan of the 1996 original—which starred Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the late, great Bill Paxton as amateur storm chasers contending with a tornado outbreak in Oklahoma—we’ve got good news.
According to Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung, the new disaster film will echo elements of its predecessor, as he recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly in an interview alongside the sequel’s stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Based on the film’s trailer, which debuted during the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 11, the standalone sequel won’t feature any of the characters from the original, but it will feel similar to the ’90s favorite, the director assured:
What was essential to me was that it always felt like in that first movie, which didn’t necessarily feel like a disaster movie. To me, it felt like an adventure movie, and I always loved how that movie inspired a generation of meteorologists and people who were interested in science and weather just because it made that study feel like it was an adventure. That’s something that I wanted to retain with this one.
Along with Chung, it’s clear that Twisters‘ actors are also big fans of 1996’s Twister, as they shared their admiration with the outlet. Glen Powell—who plays Tyler Owens in the sequel, a storm chaser and a social-media star who has dubbed himself the “Tornado Wrangler”— called the original film “revolutionary” and added:
If you would’ve told me that I would get to be in a Twister movie when I grew up, I’d say to myself, ‘You’re on the right track.’ It’s as cool as it gets.
Powell, of course, is no stranger to starring in the much-anticipated sequel to a fan-favorite flick: he famously starred in Top Gun: Maverick, which cranked up his career notoriety and led to leading-man roles in the recent rom-com Anyone but You and Richard Linklater’s action-comedy Hit Man.
In the EW interview, Glen’s Twisters co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones—who plays Kate Cooper, a former storm chaser haunted by a life-changing encounter she had with a tornado in her past—teased “loads of nods to the original” movie, saying:
[Twisters] really feels like a new chapter in a really brilliant way. There’s new technology, there’s new ways to understand these crazy weather systems and tornadoes — so we’re bringing it up to date with what the state of the world is now.”
Joining Powell and Edgar-Jones in the sprawling cast are Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Maura Tierney, Sasha Lane and Kiernan Shipka, just to name a few, who pick up the storm-chasing story several decades after the original.
Though Twister stars like Helen Hunt aren’t on the official cast list for the sequel, fans are already theorizing that Kate Cooper is actually the daughter of Bill Paxton‘s character, Bill, and Helen Hunt’s character, Jo Harding. In that action-packed trailer, you can see Edgar-Jones’ character working on a new version of “Dorothy,” the tornado device used by Jo and Bill to study the inside of the funnel.
Is this merely an Easter egg, or is Kate actually connected to the O.G. characters? We’ll all be able to find out when Twisters hits theaters on July 19. In the meantime, you can rent the original Twister movie on digital platforms.