After the box office success of the war and science-fiction film War Machine with Alan Ritchson, Netflix has confirmed that a sequel is on the way. Warning, spoilers ahead!
While the Predator saga rebooted onto the big screen in 2025 with Badlands, Netflix rolled out a few months later a war and sci‑fi film, War Machine, not without a strong echo of John McTiernan’s 1987 classic. After Arnold Schwarzenegger, another towering figure in camouflage gear squared off against heavily armed extraterrestrials: Alan Ritchson, who’s also known to Prime Video’s audience for the series Reacher.
This movie directed by Patrick Hughes, who also gave us the refined Expendables 3 and Hitman and Bodyguard, quickly found its audience among subscribers and drew broadly favorable reviews. More importantly, it managed to climb into the Top 10 of Netflix’s English-language films, landing at the tenth spot—so far the biggest success of 2026 for an English-language title. As you might expect, a sequel is on the way.
WAR MACHINE$
There are plenty of points of comparison between Predator and War Machine, but the ending of the latter diverges in a big way, even if we do get a closing shot of 81’s face in a helicopter. Rather than ending on the protagonist’s trauma and a hollow, pyrrhic victory, Patrick Hughes’ film salutes the heroism of the American military, presented as the sole bulwark against an imminent alien invasion. The tripod‑style machines are now everywhere on Earth and threaten all of humanity.
War Machine, released at the start of March 2026, therefore concluded on an open ending. After bringing back to camp his unlucky comrade and exacting a personal reckoning with a past that haunted him, 81 becomes the spearhead of the Rangers, having uncovered the weak point of these war machines—their ventilation system. Expectations were high that the streaming giant would push forward quickly with a sequel, and that is now confirmed, as the platform announced it on social media.
That said, no other details have been revealed yet—whether the director will return or who will be back in front of the camera. Alan Ritchson is very likely to reprise his role, but it remains unclear whether the sergeant played by Esai Morales or the character known as 7, portrayed by Stephan James, will return. With the machines having crashed across the globe, it’s easy to imagine the sequel expanding in scope, introducing higher-stakes conflicts and perhaps even an international coalition bringing together troops from multiple nations.
No filming schedule or release window has been announced. Yet Ritchson is likely to stay busy in the near future, thanks to his recent three‑year exclusivity deal with Amazon, where he will return for a fourth season of Reacher. Another bit of timing to note: he’ll share the poster with Arnold Schwarzenegger on December 2 for the family comedy The Man With The Bag, also headed to Prime Video. He’s also re-teaming with Patrick Hughes for an upcoming biopic in which he’ll portray Mike Thornton, a former Navy SEAL who saw action in the Vietnam War.
