On the closing night of the second annual Big Bad Film Festival in Burbank, California, action junkies seated for an epic final feature of “The Night Comes For Us” were gifted a little surprise.
The latest installment in writer-director Liam O’Donnell’s “Skyline” franchise is set to arrive early next year, but those able to get a seat at Big Bad’s finale show got to see a sneak peak of its fourth installment, “Skyline: Warpath”, via an exclusive trailer preview!
The last time we saw our “Skyline” heroes, it was in 2020’s “Skylin3s”, the third movie in the saga.
Humans had taken the fight to the Harvesters home world, Cobalt One, and Lindsey Morgan’s Rose triumphantly embraced her nature as an alien-human hybrid.
The last we saw of her, Rose was setting off on a rescue mission to find her adoptive father, and fans were teased with a daring rescue mission in a hoped-for next sequel.
But despite that sequel, “Skyline Radial”, making some news at the Cannes market back in 2022, the next taste of O’Donnell’s science fiction universe will come in the form of a prequel that’s already in the can.
“Warpath” wrapped shooting in Indonesia at the end of last year, and while Skyliners still want to know what the hell Rose would get up to in “Radial” the casting details and stills released for “Warpath” landed like Action Twitter wish casting. And the trailer lived up to the hype that names like Iko Uwais, Scott Adkins, and Yayan Ruhian bring with them.
In this fourth film, we go back in time to five years after the events of “Beyond Skyline”, which means we get to dive back into the action with Uwais’ Sua leading The Resistance against the aliens.
When he discovers the aliens’ powerful Radial Gauntlet, he must face off against human corruption via the new character Eric (Adkins) as well as that continuing extraterrestrial invasion.
As previously reported here on Kung Fu Kingdom, O’Donnell calls “Warpath” “an adventure on the side,” and compared to the prior films, he says this one is “more about the fringes of the world than the dead center.”
So, what actually happens in the trailer? We’re not allowed to show it off yet, but we can tell you all about what happens:
After opening with a sizzle summary of the franchise through “Skylin3s” before dropping us into the new action with Uwais brandishing a pair of curved blades and title cards tell us “The world’s fighters are back. On a warpath,” before cutting to Zack Lee (aka White Boy Bobby) firing a grenade launcher and Ruhian ripping open his shirt while screaming to the heavens. Oh…we are so back!
A salt and peppered Adkins as Eric the baddie then shoves his fingers into Sua’s chest and barks that the newly salvaged alien weapon is humanity’s best chance at survival.
A truck explodes on a bridge (an effect done in camera!) Lee and Uwais wail on each other as generous squib’s punctuate the combat.
There is an all-important team up fight in a hallway, and a surprise character reveal that KFK can’t share just yet, but it will certainly deliver more for the money to action fans.
There are definitely still aliens in “Warpath”, but this movie looks like the black-eyed, street brawling little brother to the prior “Skyline” movies. “Skylin3s” took us off-world, but this one is back firmly on Earth’s ground.
First looks hint at a tactical-combat thriller that will showcase the smooth and fast tight quarters beat downs that Uwais is famous for. That stands to reason, as the hero’s titular Uwais Team handled the action choreography for “Warpath”.
The movie will be distributed domestically by XYZ Films in 2025, and we look forward to an official trailer for the whole viewing public in the meantime!
This is gonna rip. Hope it comes to theaters in the US!