‘Are You Guys Allergic To Money?’: Tom Hanks Tells Us Why Forrest Gump 2 Never Happened, Despite The Studio Begging For It
Life is like two boxes of chocolates?
Take a moment to scan Tom Hanks’ filmography. You aren’t going to find a lot of sequels. The actor did a handful of Dan Brown adaptations, playing the symbologist Robert Langdon, and of course has been a staple of the Toy Story franchise as the voice of Woody. But Hanks usually plays characters that reach a natural conclusion to their arc. Sometimes that means death. Other times, it just means that the story has run its course. That appears to be the case with Forrest Gump, a powerhouse drama that swept the Oscars and earned Hanks his second Best Actor trophy. For years, there was talk of a sequel, Forrest Gump 2, but Hanks himself spoke to CinemaBlend to set the record straight.
Forrest Gump has been a topic of conversation lately because Tom Hanks has reunited with Robin Wright and his Gump director, Robert Zemeckis, for the endearing drama Here, which we reviewed on the site. As part of his promotional tour, Hanks stopped by CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast and talked about how close they got to actually making Forrest Gump 2. As you might imagine, the studio was high on the idea. But as Hanks told ReelBlend:
How can you not admire Tom Hanks for that level of integrity? It would be so easy for him to chase after guaranteed money for a sequel that the audience thinks it wants. But as the main face of a franchise, and one of the top creatives driving the bus forward, he and Zemeckis (and screenwriter Eric Roth) understood that the story they wanted to tell was finished. Even with the existence of a book as a source, there was no need to keep pushing that rock down the road.
And yet, the more we talked with Hanks about the industry, the more we learned that if they made Forrest Gump today, the possibility of a sequel might have been much stronger. Hanks went on to tell ReelBlend:
And he’s right. Well, sort of. Tom Hanks remains one of the last actors who can help push a movie like Here into theaters, with no guarantee of a sequel. (They’d have to call it There, right?) But scan the release calendar and you see Denzel Washington, Hanks’ co-star in Philadelphia and one of our all-time greats, appearing in Gladiator 2. Because, as Hanks says, IP is absolute king.
Catch the full Tom Hanks interview on ReelBlend now:
Here is in theaters now. It’s well worth your time to go see it at the movies.
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Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.