Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's Bad Moms was a surprise hit this summer. Produced for an estimated $20 million, the raunchy ensemble comedy connected with its target audience of exhausted moms to the tune of $179 million, globally. A sequel seems inevitable, even though the first bit of official news to come out of the studio was Bad Dads, a spinoff concept that doesn't sound like it includes stars Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn or Kristen Bell at all.
Fans of Bad Moms were upset -- understandably. They want to see Bad Moms 2, with these ladies at center stage. So when I hopped on the phone with Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, I asked them where they're at with a traditional Bad Moms sequel, and they confirmed to me that they want it as soon as possible, and even before Bad Dads. They said:
Jon Lucas: Our goal right now, first and foremost, is to make Bad Moms 2. To find out a way to get the sequel off the ground, because we had such a great experience making the movie. We know that the studio is excited about expanding the world of, whatever you would call it, the Bad Dads and Bad other things. Our primary focus is on doing a sequel, because I completely agree with you. It was too fun making this thing to not make another one.Scott Moore: There's a lot of discussion at the studio about what the next steps are going to be, but I just want to echo what Jon was saying, which is that we may end up being involved with Bad Dads. We may not. But our focus right now is to get Bad Moms 2 off the ground. We think that those characters are so... there's such good chemistry with them, we think we could do 10 movies with them and it would be fun.Lucas: We want to go full Police Academy where we are on, like, Number 9 or 10 and still trying out how to make this funny.
That's good news. While we don't doubt that a dude-themed Bad Dads could work -- potentially as well as the initial Bad Moms -- a big part of the reason why strong word-of-mouth fueled this summer comedy is because audiences loved the dynamic between the rebellious Mila Kunis, the bawdy Kathryn Hahn, and the buttoned-up and repressed Kristen Bell. They don't want to see that trio shelved in favor of three guys. They want to see where this trio (and hopefully lead antagonist Christina Applegate) can and will go next.
Bad Moms is making its way to home video on November 1. And hopefully it won't be too long before we can sign on the dotted line on Bad Moms 2, but it's great hearing that Jon Lucas and Scott Moore already are working behind the scenes to make that sequel happen.
