whale blubber inside the shark's stomach, burning it from the inside out, and after escaping from his pod, Jonas is rescued by Terry and a passing tourist vessel. The survivors in Jonas and Tanaka's crew capture the last surviving Megalodon pup as Jonas is taken away to be treated for decompression sickness from his fight with the adult shark and are excited about the opportunity to study this believed-extinct creature in the flesh. The young megalodon is later named Angel: The Angel of Death. Sequels The novel spawned a series with these sequels: The Trench (1999) Meg: Primal Waters (2004) Meg: Hell's Aquarium (2009) Meg: Origins (2011) Meg: Nightstalkers (2016) Meg: Generations (2020) Meg: Purgatory (2023) Film A film based on the novel had been mired in development hell since 1997. At one point, reports surfaced that the film was slated for a 2008 release date and was to be made by New Line Cinema, which had recently bought the rights from Alten. Names that were attached to the project included Jan de Bont and Guillermo del Toro. However, in July 2007, New Line canceled the production. Steve Alten had said that once his relationship with New Line was finally over, he would be taking the property elsewhere. The rights eventually reverted to Alten, but the film remained in development hell. In 2011, Alten commented on his sparsely updated website. Along with the announcement that he would be releasing a prequel novella titled Meg: Origins, Alten indicated that he was holding back the release of his next entry in the series Meg: Night Stalkers to time with the release of the film. On January 2, 2015, Alten appeared on Coast to Coast AM radio with George Noory and said that a film based on Meg was back on track. On June 16, 2015, Eli Roth was announced to direct the film adaptation. He left the project due to creative differences. On March 3, 2016, ComingSoon.net reported that director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) has since been in talks to helm the movie adaptation of Steve Alten's Meg. On April 14, 2016, various media outlets reported that action star Jason Statham would be taking the lead role of Jonas Taylor in the upcoming film. In July 2016, Jessica McNamee and Ruby Rose also joined the cast of the film. The film was initially due to be released on March 2, 2018, but