Much the same way World War Z was plagued by production issues, it seems the long-gestating sequel is having a similar string of bad luck. You may remember that The Orphanage and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona was attached to direct back in 2013, but he eventually had to leave the project behind. So what ended up happening?

Speaking with Den of Geek, Bayona just reflected on World War Z 2.

“We were working on that project for around a year, and we had a great idea,” Bayona recalled. “We were very excited. We designed great set pieces, and we were very excited with the direction we were taking with the film, but somehow, we never found a way to connect it all together.”

He continued, “There was a moment where we were about to start production, and I wasn’t ready. I told them and I said, ‘Listen, I’m not the right guy for this. There’s probably another guy who’s able to take care of this in a way that the movie will not get affected,’ so I decided to step out of the project.”

Last we heard, David Fincher was on board to direct World War Z‘s sequel, with Brad Pitt starring. That said, the production was recently delayed due to Pitt filming Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so it’s hard to know for sure if it’ll be proceeding as planned in the future. It’s beginning to feel like a film that may never actually happen.