Baby Driverdirector Edgar Wright has cast doubt over returning to helm a potential sequel, with the filmmaker concerned about doing the same thing twice. Speaking in a conversation withNo Time to Diedirector Cary Joji Fukunaga, Wright does confirm that he has now written a script forBaby Driver 2but stipulates that he has to find a way to make the project fun for himself before he’ll consider returning to the director’s chair.
“If I did the sequel - and in factI’ve already written a script- I’d have to find a way to make it fun for me. The idea of doing a straight Xerox is just not interesting because, as you know, these films take at least two years and in our cases, because of the pandemic, they took even longer. My rule of thumb is you have to really want to do it. We’ve both been in situations where we have walked away from a studio franchise movie because we weren’t feeling it. I know that we share many things in common, and that’s one of them.”
WhileEdgar Wrightdoes not dismiss the idea of helmingBaby Driver 2, he asserts that it will need to be a project he is passionate about before committing his time to bringing it to the big screen. Thanks to the ongoing global situation, the filmmaker is even more aware than usual of the pressure of making movies and ensuring they are worth the time.
Aside from the extensive time commitments, which would of course stop Wright from directing any other projects he may be considering right now, theShaun of the Deaddirector is equallyconcerned about repeating himself.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done exactly the same thing twice in a row. In fact, the reasonI decided to do Last Night in Sohowas because at the time when Baby Driver was out, it was doing an awards run and got Oscar nominations, and I was getting a lot of pressure to jump straight into doing a sequel. And I just wasn’t ready to do the same story again. It was a conscious thing of switching gears.”
Released back in 2017,Baby Driverfollows Ansel Elgort as getaway driver, Baby, who is working for mysterious criminal kingpin, Doc, in order to pay off a debt and eventually leave the criminal life behind. Along the way, Baby meets and falls in love with a young waitress named Debora, who Doc threatens to hurt if he refuses to partake in one last, dangerous heist. Lily James stars as Debora alongside Elgort, with Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Jamie Foxx and Jon Bernthal appearing in supporting roles. The firstBaby Driverwas a massive critical and financial success, earning $226.9 million at the box office, making it Wright’s highest-grossing movie to date.
ABaby Driversequel was officially greenlit back in February 2020, and while next to nothing is known about the direction of the movie, it was at least assumed that Edgar Wright would return to direct. Should Wright decide that potential repetition is too much of a risk, it will be no easy feat replacing him.
Edgar Wright’s latest, the psychological horror flickLast Night in Soho, is out now. This comes to us courtesy ofInterview Magazine.
