Twister Sequel Sets 2024 Summer Release Date

TWISTER US 1996 BILL PAXTON HELEN HUNT Date 1996
TWISTER US 1996 BILL PAXTON HELEN HUNT Date 1996
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Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

Hold onto your cows: a sequel to the 1996 megahit Twister will twirl into theaters in the summer of 2024.

Universal Pictures this week announced that the follow-up, titled Twisters, is set for theatrical release on July 19, 2024 — the same weekend Paramount's Transformers: A New Generation is set to come out.

PEOPLE previously confirmed that the studio and Amblin Entertainment were working on the film. Mark L. Smith, who wrote 2015's The Revenant, is writing the sequel, with Jurassic World Dominion producer Frank Marshall producing. Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) will direct.

Twister starred Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton as two storm-chasing scientists trying to collect data on a series of powerful tornados.

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TWISTER, Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, 1996
TWISTER, Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, 1996

©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt

The film — directed by Speed director Jan De Bont, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton — became a hit earning over $494 million at the worldwide box office.

Plot details for the sequel are still under wraps but it will likely focus on Hunt's character Dr. Jo Harding's daughter with Bill Harding (Paxton), who takes after her parents' storm-chasing interests, Deadline reported.

According to Variety, Universal described the sequel as "a new chapter from the 1996 movie."

RELATED: Twister Sequel Twisters in the Works 26 Years Later with The Revenant Screenwriter

Hunt, 59, had long hoped to make a sequel to the film herself. In 2021, she revealed on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen that she could not convince a studio to move forward with her idea for a sequel that she wrote with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Hunt had intended to direct.

Paxton sadly died in 2017 at the age of 61.

TWISTER, 1996.
TWISTER, 1996.

Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Twister

RELATED: Cary Elwes Remembers Late Twister Costar Bill Paxton as Film Turns 25: His 'Energy Was Infectious'

Last November, Twister actor Cary Elwes looked back on the film, 25 years after its release, praising Paxton's tenor on set.

"Bill really was that guy whose energy was infectious," Elwes, 60, told The Hollywood Reporter. "He reminded you that you couldn't take life seriously. That was Bill's whole ethic. He took his work seriously, but he didn't take himself very seriously."

As for the film itself, Elwes said, "It was a long shoot; a very intricate and complex shoot because it involved a lot of special effects. I had a good time working on it."