This film is sometimes mistakenly called a sequel to director
William Girdler's previous film
Grizzly (1976), mostly because it basically had the same plot and trained bear, had the same executive producer/distributor (
Edward L. Montoro), director (
William Girdler (as mentioned above)) and production company/distribution company (Film Ventures International (FVI)), and featured both
Richard Jaeckel and
Christopher George, who had also previously appeared in Grizzly. There was also a true sequel to Grizzly titled
Grizzly II: Revenge (1983) (working title: "Grizzly II: The Predator"), but originally it was never entirely completed and thus was never released in theaters or on home video until January 8, 2021. Before this happened, however, an original work print of the sequel had illegally surfaced on the Internet in 2007.