After 15 years and little movement, Tintin 2 is finally getting underway, as Peter Jackson announces he’s to take over from Steven Spielberg as director.
Update: Peter Jackson has confirmed his plans to direct a sequel to 2011’s The Adventures Of Tintin. Speaking to Gold Derby (via World of Reel, the filmmaker confirmed much of what he said at Cannes in May (see below): that he’s been working on a script with writer partner Fran Walsh (which is now finished).
The new bit, though, is that he’s now confirmed that Tintin 2 (official title pending) will be the next film he’ll direct – making it his first feature film in 12 years.
After more than a decade away from feature film-making, Peter Jackson sounds ready to get back into action.
Speaking via Zoom with longtime collaborator Richard Taylor for a retrospective story commemorating the 30th anniversary of his first Hollywood film, The Frighteners, Jackson indicated that his next project as director will be the long-awaited follow-up to Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin.
“Fran and I have been writing a script for the next Tintin film because 15 years ago, Steven Spielberg directed a Tintin film and I produced it,” Jackson said. “The idea was that then I was supposed to go straight onto a second one, and we’d swap the roles, so I’d direct the second one and he’d produce it. It’s just taken 15 years to get there, unfortunately, a bit late. But it’s a timeless story. So we just wrapped up. So probably the next film that I’d actually direct is a Tintin movie.”
Is the new Tintin still a combined adaptation of The Seven Crystal Balls and its follow-up book, Prisoners Of The Sun? That was once the plan, but it was over a decade ago. We’ll keep you posted.
Our original story follows…
14th May 2026: Blistering barnacles! We’d long since given up on the idea of 2011’s The Adventures Of Tintin getting a sequel, despite it being a thoroughly delightful rendition of Hergé’s comic books.
Here we are in 2026, though, and Peter Jackson has announced that Tintin 2 will happen after all. While receiving an honarary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the Lord Of The Rings filmmaker revealed that the sequel is an “active, real thing.”
So active, in fact, that he and writer partner Fran Walsh have been writing the script in a hotel room on the French Riviera while everyone else eats over-priced lunch on the Croissette.
“I’ve been working with Fran on another Tintin script,” he said, per Screen Daily. “I was writing it in the hotel room here. It’s an active real thing, and I’m getting back into the Tintin world, and I actually love it.”
Steven Spielberg directed the CG-animated 2011 film, while Peter Jackson served as co-producer; Jackson had long said he was going to direct the follow-up – something he sheepishly brought up himself.
Read more: How The Adventures Of Tintin nailed the model for a 2025 blockbuster
“The deal was that Steven directs one and I direct another,” said Jackson. “Steven did his film, then for 15 years [later] I haven’t made mine. I feel very awkward about that.”
The Adventures Of Tintin did decent but not brilliant business in 2011, with much of its $374m coming from Europe, where Tintin – the intrepid young journalist – is better known. There also seemed to be a bit of flip-flopping over which book to adapt next.
There was some talk of combining The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners Of The Sun books into one adventure at one stage, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s still the case all these years later.
A thoroughly charming yarn, The Adventures Of Tintin adapted The Secret Of The Unicorn (while pilfering bits from other Hergé books), and saw Jamie Bell’s Tintin and Andy Serkis’ Captain Haddock on the hunt for lost pirate treasure.
Other members of the starry, performance-captured cast included Nick Frost and Simon Pegg as British detectives Thomson and Thompson, and Daniel Craig as the villainous Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine. Will Peter Jackson manage to get the core cast back together for the next adventure? We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.