One Baywatch producer reveals he is already looking to greenlight a sequel, with the same cast and screenwriters. Baywatch made a splash as a beloved action drama in the ’80s and ’90s. Now, with revivals and reboots as a widely-recognized moneymaker, Baywatch is about to roll out a film adaptation, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron. Though the movie will take a more comedic look at life by the sea, it still maintains tenuous connections to the original show.

Though it looks like the movie won’t be winning any Oscars anytime soon (according to early reviews), the aquatic buddy cop will still likely rake in millions, which means distribution company Paramount is already scoping out more sunny blue horizons. Before the movie even premiered today, execs have been tossing around sequel ideas.

According to Variety, producer Beau Flynn already has his eyes on a sequel that would reunite much of the cast and crew, including Johnson and Efron, as well as co-writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Flynn stated:

“We have an amazing story already. We’re bringing back Shannon and Swift who wrote on the first one, and I know Dwayne would be in, I know Zac and all the girls would be. We just have this really cool idea to put them in this whole new world. We would take it overseas.”

“The girls” he refers to are co-stars Alexandra Daddario, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Kelly Rohrbach, who compose one half of the movie’s ensemble cast.

Flynn worked previously with Johnson on San Andreas, in which Daddario (sister of Shadowhunters‘ Matthew) also starred. Hadera has mainly enjoyed TV roles until now, including guest spots on popular titles like Master of None and Show Me a Hero. Rohrbach has played various TV roles, and played an uncredited part in recent release Cafe Society. In follow-up interviews with Variety, both Rohrbach and Daddario expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of a sequel.

It would be dramatic to say that Baywatch will be singlehandedly responsible for the death of the American film industry, but this isn’t the most thrilling news. When so much of Hollywood’s attention is already hyper-focused on making money that major studios rarely produce anything actually good (much less artistic) anymore, it’s hard not to take this as a case study. Though the Black List is chock-full of unrealized potential, Baywatch 2 may get a green light before its predecessor has even left theaters. Certainly critics, who say that the film is not “remotely close to being funny,” and that it “fail[ed] to live up to low expectations,” will agree that this is depressing.

Perhaps screenwriters Shannon and Swift can generate something that’s more well-received for Baywatch 2, maybe moviegoers will get lucky and the project will end up in development hell, or maybe – and probably most likely – the future Razzies will have some unbeatable nomination fodder.



Screen Rant