13 Years Later, Brad Pitt’s Sci-Fi War Thriller Is Taking Over the World

1 week ago 6

Published Apr 5, 2026, 5:20 AM EDT

Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.

For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.

He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.

His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.

For a movie that spent years stuck in “what could have been” territory, World War Z still has a lot of bite. The Brad Pitt-led blockbuster was a huge hit when it first opened, but the long-stalled sequel conversation has always hung over it. Now the movie is back in circulation in a major way thanks to free streaming, and it’s sparking that old question all over again: Why did this never become a full franchise?

The film has been performing strongly on Pluto TV, where free access has clearly helped push it back into the spotlight. That matters because World War Z has always been one of those movies people seem ready to revisit the second it becomes easy to watch again.

The cast includes Pitt as Gerry Lane, with the story following a desperate global race to slow a zombie pandemic. It’s fast, tense, and much bigger in scale than most movies in the genre. That’s probably why the sequel talk never really dies. On Pluto TV, World War Z is once again reminding viewers that there was still plenty more this franchise could have done.

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Was 'World War Z' a Success?

The movie earned half-a-billion dollars worldwide, so that tells us that World War Z was an unquestionable success with audiences. Critics, on the other hand? Well... On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the zombie flick earned a decent 67% score, with the consensus on the site reading, "It's uneven and diverges from the source book, but World War Z still brings smart, fast-moving thrills and a solid performance from Brad Pitt to the zombie genre." In Matt Goldberg's review for Collider, he rather dismissively wrote:

"It's a movie that may take place on a global stage, but the world lacks definition. With no world and no war, all that's left is the 'Z,' which can stand for zombies or what you catch when you're sleeping."

World War Z is streaming now.