Oftentimes the sequel to a critically and/or commercially successful movie arrives just a few years after its predecessor, but it’s becoming more common for such follow-ups to arrive much later. In the case of Wedding Crashers, a sequel has been publicly discussed for over half a decade now, and with this year marking the 15th anniversary of the Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson-led comedy's release, evidently there’s still a chance Wedding Crashers 2 might happen, as a story idea is floating around.
CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg recently chatted with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin about his latest movie, Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, When the topic of Wedding Crashers 2 came up, here’s what Dobkin had to say:
We're still in conversations about whether there's a sequel or not. That's going to come down to whether we end up with a script that we all feel that we're happy with. And we've been playing around with a couple of different ideas the last few years and a couple of screenplays. So we don't feel in a rush to do it. We definitely all could have taken home a King's ransom if we had made it just a year or two after the original movie, but every time we got together and talked about it, we couldn't come up with something that didn't feel like we were retreading the same movie again. We really did not want to do that; we wanted to have some integrity. So we haven't, but, you know, guys who are in their late forties and find themselves single in the world, that's a very interesting story. That's the real backbone of a new movie. So we'll see what happens.
Delivering Wedding Crashers 2 in the latter half of the 2000s certainly would have capitalized on the success of the first movie, but as David Dobkin sees it, there’s no point in rushing a sequel if there isn’t a good story in place. In that scenario, particularly if the story from the first movie is just rehashed, then nobody wins.
Let’s also not forget that comedy sequels that arrive many years later usually don’t have the best track record. Zoolander 2, Dumb and Dumber To, Bad Santa 2, need I go on? So Wedding Crashers 2 would be facing an uphill battle, not just with delivering a component story, but with meeting, or even better, exceeding the expectations of the first movie’s fans.
Nevertheless, David Dobkin clearly has been giving Wedding Crashers 2 some thought, envisioning Vince Vaughn’s Jeremy and Owen Wilson’s John jumping back into the dating game as middle-aged men. At the end of Wedding Crashers, both men were in respective, happy relationships with Isla Fisher’s Glory and Rachel McAdams’ Claire, but it Wedding Crashers 2 were to get off the ground, the couples would no longer be together, though I suspect there would still be a way to fit Fisher and McAdams’ character into the plot.
For now, it doesn’t sound like there’s any major movement towards Wedding Crashers 2 happening, but the idea hasn’t been tabled either. It just remains in a weird kind of stasis, though there was a time when it looked like the sequel was making notable steps forward. Back in 2016, Evan Susser and Van Robichaux were hired to write the script, though it’s unclear if any of what they put on paper will be kept intact should the sequel gain more steam.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates concerning Wedding Crashers 2, but in the meantime, look through our 2020 release schedule to learn what movies are headed to theaters later this year. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga drops on Netflix this Friday, June 26.
