The summer of 2009 brought with it one of the most iconic and hilarious comedies of the last decade, Todd Phillips' The Hangover. The raunchy comedy became the highest grossing, R-rated comedy of all-time domestically -- until Deadpool surpassed it. Naturally the film spawned two other films to form a trilogy and the chapter was seemingly closed on The Hangover franchise. But as with any property with name recognition and a built-in fanbase, there is always the question of a reboot or a continuation. One of the trilogy's stars, Ed Helms, evaluated the chances of a Hangover 4 in a recent interview, saying:
I would say the chances are between 0 and 0.
So you're saying there's a chance. Ed Helms doesn't sound too optimistic speaking to CinePop and I can't blame him. Three films is a lot of time to spend playing only one role and becoming known for simply one thing. I'm sure the actor wants to continue to broaden his comedic offerings beyond the Stu character and to pursue other acting opportunities that are not comedies, like his recent turn in Chappaquiddick. In the past, Ed Helms' Hangover co-star, Zach Galifianakis has expressed a wish that The Hangover franchise had just been one film. This comedy trilogy took up a huge part of these actors' lives but now they have each moved on to new chapters in their careers.
There is also the unavoidable fact that The Hangover franchise saw diminishing returns, fan enthusiasm and critical reception as it went on and sort of limped to the finish line. The original Hangover was one of those films you had to see in theaters to enjoy with an audience and this drove it to unprecedented success. But the sequel films relied too much on the original formula and were unable to quite catch that lightning in a bottle success. The Hangover is still viewed as a comedy classic, but similar to some other franchises, the sequels are not remembered as fondly.
The idea of a Hangover reboot this close to the final film in the trilogy also seems a bit premature. The Hangover Part III was only five years ago. Although, I have little doubt that The Hangover could continue at some point in the future, it sounds like it won't be a formal Hangover 4. I can see a film with a similar premise under a different name being developed or even a reboot bearing the branding but with all new characters and story. Comedy sequels have struggles matching the success of beloved predecessors but nostalgia is a powerful thing and reboots can find major success years down the line. To see all the films vying to become modern classics in 2018, you can check out our release guide.
