If you just scrolled past a thumbnail on YouTube showing Taylor Kitsch looking gritty in front of a red sky with "John Carter 2: Gods of Mars (2026)" splashed across it, I’ve got some bad news. It’s fake. Those "first trailers" popping up lately are the work of talented editors using AI and old footage to scratch an itch that hasn't gone away for over a decade.
The short answer? There is no John Carter 2 movie in production right now. It’s a bit of a heartbreaker for the cult following this movie picked up after it left theaters. Honestly, the 2012 film has become the poster child for "movies that were actually good but got buried by bad marketing." If you're looking for a release date, you won't find one. But the story of why we don’t have a sequel—and what that sequel would have looked like—is actually more interesting than the movie itself.
Why a John Carter Sequel Never Left the Launchpad
Money. Basically, it always comes down to the bottom line in Hollywood.
Disney spent an eye-watering $250 million to make the first film. When you add the marketing costs, they needed it to be a Star Wars level hit just to break even. It wasn't. It brought in about $284 million worldwide. In the world of blockbusters, that's not a success; it’s a catastrophe. Disney ended up taking a $200 million write-down on the project.
But it wasn't just the box office. Disney’s leadership changed right around the time the movie came out. Rich Ross, the studio head who greenlit the project, resigned shortly after the film flopped. When new leadership steps in, they usually want to sweep away the "failures" of the previous regime.
The Marketing Disaster
You've probably heard this before, but the marketing for John Carter was a mess. They dropped "of Mars" from the title because another Disney movie, Mars Needs Moms, had recently bombed. They thought the word "Mars" was cursed. So instead of a sweeping space epic title, we got John Carter.
Who is John Carter? To a casual moviegoer in 2012, it sounded like a legal drama or a movie about an accountant. They didn't sell the Tharks, the airships, or the fact that this story literally inspired Star Wars and Avatar.
What John Carter 2 Would Have Been About
Director Andrew Stanton didn't just have a sequel in mind; he had a whole trilogy mapped out. He’s been surprisingly open about this in recent years, especially during the 10th anniversary of the film in 2022.
The second movie was going to be titled Gods of Mars.
The Plot We Missed
The story would have picked up right where the first one left off. Carter finally makes it back to Barsoom (Mars) after ten years of searching on Earth. But he doesn't land in the middle of a celebration.
- A New Beginning: The film would have opened with a prologue narrated by Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins).
- The Reveal: We would find out that Dejah had a son with Carter, but the baby was stolen by the shapeshifting Therns.
- The Journey: Carter would have ended up in an underground world. This wasn't just a desert planet; there’s a whole "First World" living inside Mars that controls the air and water for the surface.
- The Scale: It was meant to be a much darker, more "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" style adventure.
Stanton even had a title for the third movie: Warlord of Mars. It would have been the grand finale where all the nations of Barsoom unite.
Who Owns the Rights Now?
This is the part that gives some fans a tiny sliver of hope. In 2014, the film rights for the Barsoom series reverted from Disney back to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. This means Disney couldn't make a sequel even if they wanted to. The estate of the original author now controls everything. They’ve been very vocal about wanting to find a new studio to reboot the franchise or continue it.
The problem? Most big studios are terrified of the "John Carter" brand because of the 2012 financial disaster. It’s seen as "tainted IP." However, with the success of Dune and the massive budgets of streaming services like Apple TV+ or Amazon, there is a world where a prestige TV series makes more sense than a movie.
Is There Any Chance for a Reboot?
Never say never in Hollywood, but don't hold your breath for Taylor Kitsch to put the leather armor back on.
If John Carter returns, it will likely be a total reboot. We live in an era where "un-adaptable" books are finally getting justice (look at Foundation or The Three-Body Problem). The Barsoom books are foundational to science fiction. They’re too important to stay on a shelf forever.
But for now, those 2026 trailers you see on social media are just fan-made dreams. They use "deepfake" tech to put the original actors into new scenes, but there's no camera rolling on a real set.
What You Can Do Instead of Waiting
Since a sequel isn't happening tomorrow, here is how you can actually get your fix of Barsoom:
- Read the Books: The first few novels like A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars are in the public domain. You can download them for free legally. They are faster-paced and more violent than the movie.
- Check out the Dynamite Comics: There are several comic runs that expanded the world of Barsoom far beyond what the movie showed.
- Watch "John Carter" with the Commentary: If you own the Blu-ray, listen to Andrew Stanton’s commentary. It’s a masterclass in world-building and shows how much love went into the project.
The legacy of John Carter isn't a series of movies, but the influence it had on everything else we love. Without it, we probably don't get A New Hope or Flash Gordon. It's a bummer we didn't get the trilogy, but at least we got one solid, big-budget swing at it.
If you're still hunting for news, keep an eye on the official Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. social media pages. That’s where any real announcement of a new deal with a studio like Sony, Paramount, or a streamer will actually break first. Everything else is just Martian dust.
Next Step: You should check out the original book The Gods of Mars to see exactly how the story Andrew Stanton planned differs from the source material. It's much weirder and more "pulp" than the Disney version.