Edgar Wright Confirms Baby Driver 2 Is "In The Works"
The British fan favourite director may be set to make his first sequel.
With five cult hits under his belt to date, British writer-director Edgar Wright is among the most acclaimed and celebrated filmmakers of our time. Some might deem this surprising, given his entire body of work has thus far made less money than a single blockbuster is expected to make; yet we might also be reassured to know that, even today, small matters like vision and creativity matter more than box office figures.
Aside from the fact that he came this close to directing Marvel's Ant-Man, Wright has for the most part steered clear of major franchises, and resisted any suggestion of making a sequel to any of his existing films... until now.
This summer's Baby Driver proved a major career highlight for Wright, earning him his best reviews to date (93% on Rotten Tomatoes, if that matters to you), and out-grossing all his other films put together with a global box office haul of $226.9 million.
This unexpected success - not to mention the fact that the ending left plenty of room for the tinnitus-addled, music-loving getaway driver Baby to continue his story - immediately led to talk of a follow-up, and for once Wright admitted he was open to the idea.
It turns out Wright was very open to the idea indeed, as the filmmaker has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that "talks are already in the works" on Baby Driver 2 - although he won't yet confirm whether or not he'll be back on board as director:
"The deal is being hammered out as we speak. So, hopefully, I’m going to at least write a second one. I’ve definitely got lots of ideas. Whether it’s the next movie, I don’t know. I’m just working that out at the moment, actually. I have a couple of things that I’ve been developing, and also a couple of new ideas that I had, and all the nice things things that I’ve been offered since [the release of Baby Driver]. I would like to get back on the saddle very shortly, because there was four years between The World’s End and Baby Driver. I don’t want it to be that long again. I would love to have a film out in the next two years.”
It's a little dispiriting that Wright hasn't 100% committed to directing Baby Driver 2 just yet: the film's success owed pretty much everything to the director's unique style, and even if he does pen the script, it's hard to imagine any sequel working without him behind the camera. And, of course, some might question whether Baby Driver really needs a sequel at all.
Still, Edgar Wright is one of the most distinctive voices in cinema today, and it's encouraging that such a singular filmmaker continues to be supported by the industry in this day and age. So yes, it certainly would be good to see a new Wright movie in cinemas within two years, whether it's Baby Driver 2 or something else entirely.