Back in 2021 following a pandemic-forced delay, the video game movie Free Guy released in theaters. In it, Ryan Reynolds played an NPC in a fictional who became aware of his existence and helped a player fight back against his game’s developer. Joined by Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi, and Lil Rel Howrey, it was generally considered to be a fairly good movie and did fairly well at the box office, which means a follow up is expected of it.
Reynolds and director Shawn Levy confirmed around this time last year that a Free Guy 2 was in the works, it was just something they wanted to take their time on. But over the weekend at the UK’s Just for Laughs comedy festival, Reynolds was asked about that sequel and had some words about its existence. While he admitted there was potential in following up Guy’s story, he bemoaned that it couldn’t just be a one-and-done, saying “it’s OK to just do a movie and have it kick ass and then everyone go home.”
“I would love it. But also like, does everything fucking have to be a sequel?,” he asked. “So you know, there’s a bit of a push and pull there, resisting the urge to just immediately say, ‘Ohh, doing a sequel will validate the first one.’ No, the first movie validates the first one and then you can leave it at that. So I don’t know, we’re still talking about it.”
Odds are that Free Guy 2 will still happen and Reynolds will walk back/expand on his comments like a year from now. (Probably during that Deadpool 3 press circuit.) But his apparent disinterest at a sequel at this moment in time may speak to a larger feeling of actors feeling stuck as they grow older and get attached to franchises. Zoe Saldana made similar comments ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water, as did Dave Bautista back in January. These days, actors being tied to a series or two is an inevitability, but they certainly aren’t happy about that.
[via Variety]
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