When I think of Will Forte’s famous character MacGruber, I have to say I think of Cunth and throat rips but almost never The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, until now. In fact, thanks to the anniversary of MacGruber, there’s a great story running around about a “stellar” email Nolan sent regarding the MacGruber TV series.
In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Jorma Taccone revealed that after he learned Christopher Nolan used to recite “MacGruber” SNL sketch lines to Anne Hathaway on the set of The Dark Knight Rises, he actually invited the famous director to the table read for the MacGruber TV series. The director declined, but with an email Taccone called “stellar” and just “an amazing way to start a read-through.”
Though I can’t be there in person to watch you take the first step of your odyssey—know that my spirit soars with you, and whilst it’s perhaps unfair to add to the great sense of responsibility you must already feel, I am duty bound to tell you—the world is waiting, the world is watching.
Taccone and Christopher Nolan were connected prior to the invite and email exchange, when Jorma Taccone had a great idea for a MacGruber-typical joke. Taccone said in the anniversary rundown that he found out about the whole “no big deal, but famous director Christopher Nolan likes to quote our movie” thing from a late night interview Hathaway gave and then got the gumption to ask the director to please let him incorporate a joke when the sequel happens.
The closer to that story is that my wife [director Marielle Heller] and I were at our first DGA dinner. And she’s like, ‘Christopher Nolan is there. You’ve got to go say hi to him.’ So I went up to him and I said, ‘My name is Jorma. I directed this movie called MacGruber.’ I said, ‘We’re going to do a sequel eventually. What do you think of this: When the director card comes up it just says, Directed by Christopher Nolan with an asterisk, and then at the end of the movie there’s another asterisk that says who actually directed it.’ And he said, ‘Let me talk to my wife about it.'
There’s been no MacGruber 2 yet, but that TV series is coming. Will Forte is set to star and NBC’s streaming service Peacock is set to be the parent home of the comedy, which I suppose will serve as a sequel of sorts. There’s no word on whether Ryan Phillippe or Kristen Wiig will reprise their roles as of yet, but Vicki and Piper are part of the new eps.
In addition, eight episodes will be produced and we learned earlier this spring that the majority of them have been written. So this thing really looks to be happening, people. My only real question is: Will this be the cold open?
MacGruber didn’t do super well in its initial box office run, which may make you wonder why a TV series would even be coming, but a lot of people love it. The movie has a cult following, it had a mainstream and famous Super Bowl ad and also the SNL sketches are classics. We’ll have to wait and see about the trajectory of the TV series as it moves forward on Peacock, but for now, you can check out what’s coming to TV with CinemaBlend’s summer TV schedule.
