With three books in the Chaos Walking trilogy, the film's ending sets up an open premise that leaves room to further its story in potential sequel.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Chaos Walking.
The ending of Chaos Walking, the film starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, sets the story up for a potential sequel. This isn’t surprising considering the film is based on the first novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, in author Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy. The film is set in 2257 and follows Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade, a woman whose ship crash landed onto a planet where men’s inner thoughts can be heard by everyone, an affliction called “the Noise.”
Todd and Viola spend most of the movie on the run from Mayor Prentiss, who seeks to find and kill Viola along with Preacher Aaron and the citizens of Prentisstown. While the film doesn’t expand on the reasons behind why the human settlers arrived on the planet and why only the men’s thoughts can be heard, Chaos Walking’s finale leads Todd and Viola to find one of the first ships that came to the planet. Together, they work to reboot the system and get the antenna to work once more so as to send a signal to the mothership in space. Chaos Walking ends with Viola and Todd watching the new arrivals bring in their resources and vow to show them the ropes of the new world together.
The film’s finale sees the 4,000 people on Viola’s ship arrive, marking the Second Wave of human settlers on the planet. Viola says (thinks, really) that her people made her promise she would make it here to “find a better life,” establishing that she will stay in the new world with Todd and work with her people to make a new life for themselves. While a sequel to Chaos Walking has not actually been confirmed, the Second Wave lays the foundation for the next chapter in Todd and Viola’s lives. In Ness’ first book, Viola is shot by Mayor Prentiss’ son Davy and her ship doesn’t actually land until the end of the second novel, called The Ask and the Answer.
Although Todd surrenders to the mayor to save Viola in the book, Chaos Walking sees Prentiss plummeting to his doom four floors below the ship. However, the film doesn’t confirm his death and it’s possible that he could return to wreak more havoc on the new world. In the second book, the mayor establishes New Prentisstown, separating the men from the women and imprisoning the natives of the planet, called Spackle. If Prentiss returns, he could theoretically do the very same thing to maintain his control. What’s more, the books present a cure for the Noise, which is an issue the settlers could grapple with in a potential sequel. A second movie could also work to explain why humans left Earth, how long they were roaming space before they found a new Earth-like world, and why the Noise only affects the men. Perhaps further detail could help the new settlers find the cure that is touched upon in the books.
With the arrival of Viola’s people and additional resources, the first wave of settlers could see their entire lives changed, for better or worse. A Chaos Walking sequel could also slow down a bit to explore all of these changes. With the fallout from the end of the film and the truth revealed to Todd about Prentiss killing his mom, the arrival of Viola’s people seems like only the beginning. The thousands arriving in the new world set up a possible confrontation between Viola’s people and the settlers of Haven and Farbranch. How will they get along? How will the new settlers interact with the Spackle and can they establish a rapport? What will become of Prentisstown? All of these questions could be answered and explored further in a sequel to Chaos Walking. After all, the film left a lot of storylines open-ended and, with two books remaining in Ness’ trilogy, there’s plenty of source material to draw from.
