Could ‘A Simple Favor’ 2 Happen?

Brother f*cker. Could A Simple Favor, the 2018 iconic comedic thriller from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in possibly their best roles ever, be given a sequel? It looks like possibly!

The film follows Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers, a mom who bonds with another mother at her son’s school – a high powered career woman named Emily Nelson (Lively). Despite being total opposites, the two become friends and bond over the twisted darkness they find they share. When Emily goes missing after telling Stephanie to watch her son, Stephanie decides to investigate her friend’s disappearance.

While the film did well in theaters – $97.64 million worldwide on a $20 million dollar budget – it didn’t really break out until it was added to Hulu and Amazon Prime in August of 2019. Suddenly, the internet (or at least Twitter) couldn’t seem to stop talking about the film. As more and more viewers found it and became fans of the ice cold martini swirling, Blake Lively suit wearing, mommy blogging film, we seemed to be in a sort of A Simple Favor-renaissance. The thing is, that sudden burst of favor for the film never seemed to end, but has only grown more over time, including right now.

One major development has been the podcast about the film, A Simple Podcast, created by Jordan Crucchiola, Alanna Bennett, and Cristina Grace. The podcast, which launched only a couple of weeks ago has maybe spurred even more talk around the film than the creators anticipated. There have also been some recent articles about the film including a Bright Wall/Dark Room article, and this Mel Magazine article about the film’s queer legacy.

As usual though, the real buzz seems to be happening on Twitter. In a thread relating to the Mel Magazine article, the author, Joseph Longo, tagged Feig and asked when we would be getting A Simple Favor 2. Feig responded by saying that he’s working on it!

Quote retweeting Feig’s response, Forbes contributor Scott Mendelson said he could easily see the sequel being a perfect fit for Hulu or Prime. Feig responded to that as well saying he already has an idea for the film, and would “be happy to do it for whatever studio or streamer would want it.”

This could all just be conjecture of course, but with the film’s popularity on the rise, it could be that some studio or streamer really does wake up and smell the money on this. Feig, for his part, is happy to push the issue while people are publicly squealing about the film. “In many ways, it my favorite movie I’ve made,” Feig said in this Decider article, where he also mentioned just constantly wanting more and more people to see the film in whatever way possible. Also, despite the short notice, Feig is going to appear on the podcast.

If one is wondering why there’s such a surge of love for the film now, instead of when the film premiered in theaters, many blame the marketing for the film. The film was marketed as a straight up thriller to audiences, including in the below trailer, much in the style of Gone Girl, and completely ignored the comedic aspect of the film. “There was a key missing element: the humor not being played out in the marketing,” said Bennett in that Mel Magazine article.

I personally discussed going to see the film in theaters with a friend, but since we both have an aversion to scary things, we decided to put off seeing the film until after it was available to stream so that we could turn it off if it got too scary. I did eventually rent the film about six months before it was available to stream on Hulu and Prime, and was delighted to find that while it plays with the thriller genre, it’s relentlessly funny, and not scary at all. The blend of genres is a trademark of Feig’s, and was possibly something the marketing just didn’t know what to do with. Now that the film is widely available for people to watch with just a click of a button, the masses are finding it, and talking about it, and bringing it to the attention of even more people. The word of mouth for the film is really just off the charts.

Since the film was adapted from a novel of the same name by Darcey Bell, if a sequel were to happen, it would have to make its own way, although Feig does not seem daunted by the task. While for now talk of a sequel remains pure Twitter chatter, it could very quickly turn into something more (I’ll never forget how quickly a Gilmore girls revival was announced after the excitement over it being added to Netflix
NFLX
). So, to all the studios and streamers out there, please take up Feig on his offer to make an A Simple Favor sequel. We all need it!

And if you haven’t seen the film yet, what are you waiting for? In addition to Lively and Kendrick, the film also stars Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Linda Cardellini (Dead To Me), and Jean Smart (Watchmen). So pop yourself some popcorn, mix yourself an ice cold martini, and get snuggly for this iconic and wonderful film.