Writer/director Judd Apatow hasn’t dealt with sequels too often in his career, with This is 40 acting as the closest thing to a follow-up in his body of work. Though he was merely a producer on the film, Apatow has always been keen to make a sequel to the 2007 pop culture hit Superbad. While it’s a project you won’t see on the list of upcoming movies for this, or any other year, the idea that he shared was actually a pretty promising prospect.
During an appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, Judd Apatow spilled the beans on what he wanted Superbad 2 to be about. Following a natural progression, his pitch also came with a perfect defence for taking such a huge gamble to begin with. Here’s what Apatow had in mind for the potential follow-up:
I always wanted them to do a sequel to Superbad. I know that Jonah said ‘Oh it’ll be funny to do it when we’re 70 or 80,’ but I really wanted them to do a Superbad in college where Jonah flunks out of college and just shows up and visits Michael Cera at college. But everyone was like ‘Nah we don’t want to screw up Superbad by accidentally making a crappy second one.’ And I would always say the same thing, ‘Well that’s like saying don’t make the second episode of The Sopranos. Like, so why do you think we would screw up the second one?’
The expectation with any sequel is that there’s a good chance the goodwill towards the first movie might be squandered. Examples of such a happening are very subjective, as seen in Michael Cera and Judd Apatow’s back and forth about Superbad 2. However, seeing as Cera’s opinion is also shared by writer/star Seth Rogen, one can see why the sequel hasn’t exactly caught fire.
At the same time, Judd Apatow does throw a loving reference to Jonah Hill’s pitch for Superbad 2, which would follow Seth and Evan’s lives in a retirement home. While that does sound like a pretty fun idea for a new start, the Apatow pitch above isn’t horrible. This holds especially true when you remember the story of Superbad and how ended.
Concluding on the final visual of Michael Cera’s Evan and Jonah Hill’s Seth respectively splitting up to hang out with Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Jules (Emma Stone), it seems like they’ve got their futures ahead of them. Superbad’s fast paced march to adulthood embodied a bittersweet version of the typical happy ending a teen party movie such as this would land on. To see Seth backslide in Superbad 2 and fall back on his friendship with Evan would have been a fun new obstacle, with tons of comedy potential.
Looking at where the Superbad cast is now, as well as how long it’s been since that first movie, the chances of any sort of follow-up are pretty slim. Which is a shame because Judd Apatow’s concept for Superbad 2 actually could have been as poignant and funny as the film that inspired it. At least there’s a somewhat viable option with Christopher Mintz-Platz’s suggestion for a female reboot to Superbad, provided of course such a thing could be successfully created and not immediately compared to the already hysterical Booksmart.
In the current world of Judd Apatow films, you can see his latest project The Bubble, as it’s currently streaming as part of the vast library of Netflix movies. While Superbad 2 may never happen, at least Apatow still has his concept for a This is 40 sequel in the works, aptly titled This is 50. So Judd may get his dream sequel yet, just in a different form.