Although it seems like sequels, prequels, and reboots are the only films getting made nowadays, fans need to make peace with the fact that they are never getting a sequel to Bridesmaids. Ever. While promoting her role in the upcoming Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (starring Bridesmaids‘ Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo), actress Wendi McLendon-Covey told Us Weekly in no uncertain terms that Bridesmaids 2 was never happening.
“You know, for 10 years we’ve been saying that there will be no sequel,” said McLendon-Covey. “And that’s coming from Kristen [Wiig’s] mouth. So, yeah, there is no sequel.” However, McLendon-Covey gamely gave readers a glimpse into where her character, the uproarious Rita, might be today. “I think maybe one of Rita’s kids knocked up a teacher,” cracked McLendon-Covey. “And I think she’s divorced and seeing that, you know, ‘Oh, I had it so much better when I was married. I wonder why I was so miserable all the time?’ I kind of patterned her off of any of the Real Housewives of wherever, where there is always something wrong but there’s really nothing wrong. It’s just that she’s bored and needs to get a job.”
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Wiig addressed the possibility of a sequel in 2013, telling Harper’s Bazaar that she never intended to make a sequel. “It wasn’t a hard decision,” explained Wiig. “We knew during the first one, this was it. We would have made a lot of money if there was a second one, but that’s not my goal in my creative life.”
Many of the breakout actresses have worked together since Bridesmaids — Melissa McCarthy and Wiig in Ghostbusters, McCarthy and Maya Rudolph in Life of the Party — and McCarthy, in particular, has worked frequently with director Paul Feig. While promoting his film Last Christmas, Feig gave an excellent answer to why Bridesmaids never got a sequel, explaining that while fans may think that they want to return to those characters, the only way to look is forward.
“One of the reasons the first movie works is not because of the wedding or all the s—ing in the sinks – which is a good scene, I’ve got to say – but because Kristen Wiig’s character is this mess who goes through the fire and has to repair herself at the end,” Feig told Games Radar. “To take a movie like that and do a sequel… We could take [Melissa McCarthy’s character] Megan and get her married, which is a really funny idea, but how do I invest the audience in that?”
Feig continued, explaining that no one really wants to see Wiig’s life in shambles once again. “You can’t just have Kristen’s life fall apart again and put back together. It always sounds so easy, like a done thing, but it’s that spirit of discovery you have in that first movie that really pulls you along, whether you notice that or not. You watch the character become something else.” While it’s not Bridesmaids 2, you can catch McLendon-Covey, Wiig and Mumolo in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar streaming VOD on Feb. 12.
