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Steven Spielberg changed cinema forever when Jaws hit theaters in 1975. It turned beach trips into second thoughts for millions and gave birth to what we now call the summer blockbuster. Now, with its 50th anniversary this year, people are once again diving into the film, not just the original but the sequels too.
Why Jaws 2 Was Made Without Steven Spielberg
Among the sequels, Jaws 2 stands out. It is not because it was great, but because it’s the least bad. It brought back Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody, another shark, and a new director, Jeannot Szwarc. However, the most famous name from the first film was missing as Steven Spielberg didn’t return, and there’s a lot more behind that than some simple refusal.
The iconic director became a force in Hollywood when Jaws exploded at the box office and took home Oscars. The film was a massive hit, earning over $477 million worldwide, and Universal saw a goldmine and wanted a sequel fast. The original producers, David Brown and Richard Zanuck, stayed on, and even Roy Scheider returned. But Spielberg, on the other hand, went silent, mainly because he dismissed sequels as cheap tricks and believed he’d already made the ultimate shark movie. Well, in all fairness, he did speak the truth.
#Jaws was released on this day 50 years ago 🦈 pic.twitter.com/YFDkErcduC
— Jay (@JibbaJabb) June 20, 2025
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The Real Reason Steven Spielberg Walked Away From Jaws 2
According to Collider, Spielberg’s absence wasn’t only about creative pride. Apparently, behind the scenes of the first film, things had gone off the rails. The mechanical shark used in the movie barely worked, the ocean shots dragged forever, the tensions between the actors were at an all-time high, and worst of all, the production went a hundred days over schedule. Spielberg thought it might ruin his career, but fortunately, it turned out to be the complete opposite. These experiences proved to be detrimental for Spielberg, and it even haunted him long after the movie was filmed.
Steven Spielberg’s Lost Prequel Idea
At one point, though, Spielberg did think about coming back. After Hancock’s firing and with no director locked in, Spielberg reached out. He pitched a prequel based on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the story Robert Shaw chillingly recounted in the original.
It would have been something new, something other than another rinse-and-repeat shark hunt. But Universal wasn’t interested in waiting for him to finish Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and that was that. There was no real fuss about it. Spielberg walked quietly away, perhaps relieved he didn’t plunge back into those waters.
In the end, the studio rushed ahead with a safer script instead of building something fresh. As a result, Jaws 2 came together, which was lighter in tone and familiar in formula. It wasn’t a disaster, but it also wasn’t the bold leap forward Spielberg had briefly imagined. The idea of the Indianapolis prequel faded away, though it still holds enough weight to make fans wonder what could’ve been.
Jaws Trailer
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