Why Edge of Tomorrow’s Sequel Is Titled Live Die Repeat & Repeat

Doug Liman has explained the whole ordeal behind Edge of Tomorrow‘s name change and why the sequel has been titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat. In 2014, Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth adapted Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill into Edge of Tomorrow, which was directed by Liman and starred Tom Cruise as Major William Cage and Emily Blunt as Sergeant Rita Vrataski.

Despite being heralded as one of the best science fiction movies in recent years, Edge of Tomorrow failed to be the box office draw that Warner Bros. was hoping for, having grossed $100 million domestically and an additional $270 million internationally, thus bringing its total cume to $370 million, a decent number compared to its estimated production budget of $178 million. Although it didn’t break box office records, the studio has still commissioned a sequel. Liman will direct the sequel with Cruise and Blunt reprising their roles from the first film, and the movie will be based off a script by Race screenwriters Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. Instead of being titled Edge of Tomorrow, though, the movie will be called Live Die Repeat and Repeat — and we now know why.

The studio believed that part of the reason the first movie didn’t catch on domestically was because people were confused by its name, and that’s why they opted to change the title to Live Die Repeat when the film hit home video. It turns out, that title was what Liman wanted all along, and when it came time for them to title the sequel, he told Den of Geek that he put his foot down and was allowed to title the upcoming second installment, Live Die Repeat and Repeat.

“So the book was called All You Need Is Kill. Japanese. I was making a comedy – an action comedy, and All You Need Is Kill didn’t feel like it was the tone of the movie I had made. The studio wanted to call it Edge Of Tomorrow, and I wanted to call it Live Die Repeat. I fought vehemently and lost. And then when the film came out and people loved it but the box-office wasn’t as good as it should have been, I really railed into the executive at Warner Bros who’d insisted that Edge Of Tomorrow was the better title.

“I was like, ‘It clearly is not. You were wrong.’ I committed the cardinal sin of telling somebody in Hollywood when they’re wrong, like, literally – I ended up having to call the person and apologize for pointing out that they were wrong. And they started titling it the title I always thought it should have, which is Live Die Repeat. But they tiptoed around it, and when we make the sequel, it’ll be permanently titled Live Die Repeat. The sequel will be Live Die Repeat and Repeat.”

The upcoming Edge of Tomorrow sequel hasn’t been given an official release date yet, and while people still don’t know what the story will be about (since it isn’t based on any established source material), McQuarrie has previously said that it will make sense of the first movie’s ending. Moreover, Liman stated that the sequel is more original than Edge of Tomorrow and that it’s so “outrageous,” they needed an even crazier title this time around.

“…We came up with an idea that we loved so much and that is so original – it’s why the sequel’s gotta have an even crazier title, because the idea’s so outrageous, and so smart and clever. It feels more original even than the first movie. Tom and I and Emily are talking about going back into the trenches.”

Edge of Tomorrow fans have been undoubtedly excited about the upcoming sequel, though there’s no word on when people should expect to see it release. Liman has been busy, and his schedule isn’t clearing up anytime soon, so it might be sometime before the cast and crew can get together to make Live Die Repeat and Repeat happen. Whenever it does release, though, it sounds like it will be quite the adventure.