Prequel to Sci-fi Film ‘The Wandering Earth’ Hits Cinemas Next Month

The Wandering Earth 2 dropped a new trailer and a series of new posters on December 14, revealing that the film will officially hit cinemas on the Chinese mainland on January 22, 2023, the first day of the upcoming Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year).

The upcoming film will serve as a prequel to the 2019 blockbuster The Wandering Earth. Both are adaptions of acclaimed Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin’s short story of the same title, which was released in 2000. Director Frant Gwo announced the prequel three years ago, and the film’s first trailer debuted in August of this year.

The two films are set in the future, when the Sun is about to turn into a red giant, swelling to a size so great that it will consume the Earth. To avoid a fiery end, humankind decides to propel our home planet to another galaxy, precisely 4.2 light years away, using thousands of giant rocket thrusters.

While the first film mainly focuses on Earth’s journey through the galaxy, the prequel will depict conditions on Earth before it started wandering. Moreover, it will also reveal how people across the planet were initially skeptical about the crisis and the ‘Wandering Earth Project’ before struggling to save themselves.

Like the first film, author Liu serves as the executive producer of The Wandering Earth 2. Lead actor Wu Jing will reprise his role as protagonist astronaut Liu Peiqiang. Other famous faces in the new film include veteran actor Li Xuejian and Hong Kong star Andy Lau, the latter making a special appearance as a scientist.

The Wandering Earth earned about 700 million USD worldwide in 2019, and it was the first-ever Chinese sci-fi film to be released on Netflix. As such, Chinese netizens have long been excited about The Wandering Earth 2, and many expect it to dominate the Chinese New Year box office.

A hashtag for the new trailer on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo has garnered 110 million views at the time of writing.

“The special effects are clearly making progress. They look so much better than those in the 2019 film. I can’t wait to see it!” commented a Weibo user.

Another netizen wrote, “The cast is awesome. Andy Lau will definitely be a highlight! Undoubtedly it will be my top movie choice during the Chinese New Year holiday.”

All images via IMDb