Bekmambetov repeated the “screenlife” idea in a recent interview with SyFy. The director expressed even more explicitly that humans now life their lives on screens and that assassins would most certainly be in line with the times:
“The Fraternity now, if it exist[ed] today, I’m sure would be in [the] digital space. […] They can get messages, the names from some hackers […] they will use blockchain to set up the assassinations. We live in a different world now. [Since] 2008, I am sure our world is not about guns or explosive materials anymore. It’s about the information, it’s about the big data, blockchain, dark web, cryptocurrency. It’s where we live now.”
Screenwriters Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, in 2012, were still working on a script, having taken over from Evan Spiliotopoulos, who was, in 2011, the screenwriter who took over the project from Chris Morgan. Haas and Brandt noted that the new “Wanted 2” idea was to pivot away from Jolie’s character and focus on an all-new character. Wesley, now four years wiser, would serve as this new character’s mentor. The roles would be reversed, with McAvoy taking over the Morgan Freeman position, and the new upstart being the sad sack whose life was turned around by her induction into the Fraternity.
It’s worth noting that Fox was actually shot in the head in the first “Wanted,” and was presumed dead. Given the oddball nature of the movie, and the semi-supernatural conceit of bullet-bending assassins, however, her death was more of an inconvenience than a permanent state of being. Despite this, Fox was out and a new character was in.
