This Is Why Kristen Wiig Says There Will Never Be a ‘Bridesmaids’ Sequel
The Kristen Wiig-written, Judd Apatow-produced 2011 comedy superhit Bridesmaids will be a one-film wonder. Presumably, there’s no such thing as second marriages in the Apatow extended universe.
At this point, the endless slog of sequels and reboots coming out of Hollywood is a dead horse that doesn’t demand any extra beating. Everyone who has walked past an AMC in the last decade knows that almost no single successful movie from 10-plus years ago is immune from a second installment, even if there’s nothing in the narrative of the original film that calls for a continuation of the non-franchise. In fact, the sequel sickness of today’s movie business has been so normalized that, on the rare occasion that the star and writer of a movie that made $300 million on a $30 million budget announces that there will never be a second film following up her success, it becomes headline entertainment news.
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Wiig is currently on the press tour for her new comedy miniseries Palm Royale, based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, and in an interview with PEOPLE about the new show, Wiig was asked if she ever saw herself returning to her touching comedy about friendship and marriage. Wiig bluntly stated that there has “never been a conversation,” because, unlike some screenwriters who consistently get work on Hollywood blockbusters, Wiig wrote a special little feature into the script of Bridesmaids that precludes it from sequel possibilities – it’s called an “ending.”
“That story had an end, and it’s so beloved to me for 10 million reasons,” Wiig said of the film that became the first Academy Award-nominated Apatow production in history when Wiig and her writing partner Annie Mumolo were nominated in the Best Original Screenplay and Melissa McCarthy scored a Best Supporting Actress nod, a rare achievement for a comedic performance. Wiig said of the legacy of Bridesmaids, “I think it’s okay to just have it exist in the world as it is.”
McCarthy, on the other hand, has previously expressed her hope that Wiig, Apatow and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig would one day get the band back together, telling PEOPLE just last year that she “would do a Bridesmaids sequel this afternoon, right now.” McCarthy said of the film’s cast, which also included Wiig’s Saturday Night Live co-star Maya Rudolph among other heavy hitters, “That group of women was the most magical thing ever. Almost all of us were really good friends already. I think it was such a magical time.”
As magical as Bridesmaids may have been, it’s refreshing to hear that its legacy will never be tarnished by a slew of unnecessary sequels that try to recapture the entirely singular energy that made the movie such a massive success, both critically and commercially. It would be a shame to watch Wiig and her companions drag out the same jokes over multiple increasingly production-heavy installments, à la The Hangover. Sometimes, it’s just best to sleep it off.
