A Bright sequel is still in the works, according to director David Ayer. Released as a Netflix Original in 2017, the first Bright starred Will Smith and Joel Edgerton as LAPD officer Daryl Ward and Nick Jakoby, the first-ever orc cop in a world where humans have existed alongside fantasy creatures for centuries. The genre mashup was largely dismissed by critics (citing its half-baked metaphors about racism and general sloppiness), but was a huge success for Netflix, bringing in a reported 11 million viewers in its first weekend of streaming alone. So, naturally, a sequel was put into development just a few weeks later.
That was two years ago and there hasn’t been much (or, really, any) progress to report on Bright 2 since then. Lucy Fry, who costarred as the elf Tikka in Ayer’s $90 million urban fantasy cop action movie, shed some light on the matter last September, explaining Bright 2 was originally set to begin production in 2019, but was delayed due to Smth’s busy schedule. It appears Netflix is still committed to making the sequel happen in spite of this, judging by the latest details from Ayer.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association panel for Fox’s upcoming cop drama Deputy (which he’s executive producing and partly directing), Ayer offered updates on a few of his in-development projects. According to /Film, he said Bright 2 is still in the pipeline before adding “We’re working on it so hopefully we’ll be able to mount that up soon.” He went on to express a desire to further explore Bright’s alternate reality setting with the sequel, calling it a “very rich world” that he intends to “drill down some more.”
One of the frequent criticisms of Bright was its premise had potential, but was squandered by the film’s messy execution. In terms of world-building, many felt Bright did little more than swap typical fantasy creatures in for stock cop movie characters, with little regard to how its setting would’ve evolved differently because of their existence. A sequel could readily improve on that, especially since Ayer would be drawing on a script he wrote with Evan Spiliotopoulos (Charlie’s Angels 2019), as opposed to revising an earlier draft by writer Max Landis (who’s gone off the radar since allegations of sexual and emotional abuse were raised against him last year). Bright 2 could also provide more meaningful social commentary than its predecessor did by really digging down in the minutiae of how its urban fantasy society is structured when it comes to class.
For the time being, however, it’s difficult to say when Bright 2 could go into production (in the event it ultimately gets a green-light). Smith’s schedule will be a little more open once he’s done promoting next week’s Bad Boys for Life, but Ayer is currently gearing up to film a modern-day set remake of The Dirty Dozen for Warner Bros. sometime this year. Edgerton, meanwhile, has continued to maintain a good working relationship with Netflix by cowriting and starring in last year’s The King (which the streamer released as an exclusive), so he will - presumably - be good to go on Bright 2 as soon as Smith and Ayer are. All things considered, then, Bright fans might want to refrain from holding their breath for this one until further notice.
Source: /Film
