Comedy movie sequels are few-and-far-between, and the successful ones are probably even rarer. 22 Jump Street would be one example that maintained the quality of the first movie and the second Borat movie was also well received. Other than that, it’s hard to think of many from the last decade or two.
Successful sequels very much depend on timing and tend to fall into two camps – those that come swiftly after the first movie and maintain the same magical chemistry between the stars, or those that wait decades and cash in on nostalgia.
Now Judd Apatow, who was a producer on Greg Mottola’s Superbad, has shared his idea for a sequel that would have followed Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) at college. Speaking to Michael Rosenbaum, Apatow said; “I always wanted them to do a sequel to Superbad. I know that Jonah said ‘Oh it’ll be funny to do it when we’re 70 or 80,’ but I really wanted them to do a Superbad in college where Jonah flunks out of college and just shows up and visits Michael Cera at college.”
Apatow continued; “But everyone was like ‘Nah we don’t want to screw up Superbad by accidentally making a crappy second one.’ And I would always say the same thing, ‘Well that’s like saying don’t make the second episode of The Sopranos. Like, so why do you think we would screw up the second one?’”
Jonah Hill’s career has veered away from comedy somewhat now, and he was Oscar-nominated for Moneyball in 2011, and The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. Michael Cera has mostly stuck to the independent comedy and drama scene. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 15 years since Superbad came out. They heyday of Apatow comedy movies is a distant memory now, but they’ve not really been replaced with anything comparable.
Find out if Superbad made our list of the best 2000s movies.