Torpedoed by Barbie? Why might this sequel with Ryan Reynolds be cancelled?

2021’s breakout hit, Sean Levy’s Free Boy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer, grossed $331 million worldwide and drew nearly 600,000 to French theaters. The good score of this film was released just 3 months after the theaters opened after the covid-19 pandemic.

Very quickly, Disney announced a sequel to this action comedy starring Ryan Reynolds as a bank employee who discovers that he is actually just a background character in an online video game. Determined to become the hero of his own history, even if it means rewriting it, he will do anything to save his world.

But today the director Sean Levy – who is teaming up again with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for Deadpool 3 – says the site Collider That sequel ultimately failed in part because of…Barbie!

What does Greta Gerwig’s film do in history? Shawn Levy explains that the film starring Margot Robbie, which came out this summer, deals with themes similar to Free Guy. After the success of Barbie, making a film on the same theme, which is the biggest hit of 2023 so far, seems risky for him.

He states: “Results are not guaranteed. We love Free Guy and that love for him has waned over the past few years, which Ryan and I were very happy about.

Barbie left her mark

We’re in the process of developing a sequel, but right now we have Barbie to consider. The film is about a character in a fictional world who realizes himself and clearly left his mark. So we’ll only make Free Guy 2 if it’s different from the first movie and if it’s different from other movies on the subject.”.

For viewers who have seen Free Guy, it is easy to imagine what the sequels and analogies are Barbie. The filmmaker, who is currently in full promotion for the Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See, doesn’t want to repeat it.

Therefore, Free Guy 2 can only be made if the script is different from other films of this genre. But we’ll have to wait until the writers’ strike is over to find out what fate has in store for this sequel.

Sean Levy, meanwhile, will team up with his accomplice Ryan Reynolds to direct the sequel as soon as The Strike ends. Deadpool 3. The superhero film will be the third collaboration between the two men, following Free Guy and Adam Through Time.