Jason Statham says The Meg will get a sequel if giant shark movie hooks public

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In the action movie The Meg (out Aug. 10), Jason Statham’s diver character, Jonas Taylor, faces off against a giant prehistoric shark known as a Megalodon, which has attacked and disabled a deep-sea submersible in the Pacific Ocean.

“He gets brought in to save the crew at the bottom of the ocean that’s confronted with this 75-foot shark,” Statham says. “Taylor encountered this shark many years ago, but everyone thought he was crazy. Turns out, everybody was wrong!”

The film is based on Steve Alten’s 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, the first in a series of Meg tales. Statham says the film will likely also expand into a full-blown franchise, should the first movie strike a chord with audiences.

“I think it’s like anything in this day and age — if it makes money, there’s obviously an appetite to make more money,” the actor says. “And if it doesn’t do well, they’ll soon sweep it under the carpet. But that’s the way Hollywood works. Everyone tries to make a good film, and it lies in the hands of the audience. People are the ultimate decider; the audience is the decider of whether anything gets to be a sequel or not.”

Watch the trailer for The Meg above, and see an exclusive image from the film below.