With the exception of Spider-Man: Homecoming and, to a lesser extent, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman spinoff – after five weeks and $700 million, the Warner Bros. tentpole has now catapulted the DC Extended Universe toward $3 billion at the global box office – Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, a music-fuelled heist movie 22 years in the making, is currently the talk of the town.
Lauded by critics as an electrifying, fiercely original crime caper, Baby Driver scored a respectable $35 million on its domestic opening, and it’ll be interesting to see how word of mouth – coupled with the film’s international markets – influences that box office total this coming weekend.
Such an eye-catching, head-turning debut has even fuelled chatter of a sequel to Wright’s star-studded thriller, and that’s something that the writer-director himself addressed while appearing on the latest installment of the Empire Podcast.
The studio have asked me to think about writing a sequel and it is one of the ones that I might do a sequel to because I think there’s somewhere more to go with it in terms of the characters. Baby has got to a new place.
Most sequels you have to contrive something so they go back to square one, unless there’s somewhere deeper for them to go. I think with Baby Driver there’s more that you can do in that realm, and I sort of have an idea that if you did another [film] you would subvert his involvement in the crime in a different way so he’s not the apprentice anymore.
The filmmaker then drew attention to one deleted scene featuring a track by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, which he believes would be perfect fodder for the as-yet-unconfirmed sequel.
Before they got to the post office there was this whole scene set to, believe it or not, a song by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. And it’s a really funny and quirky sequence and I really liked it in isolation. But as soon as I tried lifting it out of the movie it made so much more sense. It flowed a lot better without it, basically. If I ever do a sequel, I can just reuse the scene as it was a really good scene, but it seemed to interrupt the flow of tension.
With its rat-a-tat pacing and fist-pumping soundtrack, Baby Driver is arguably one of the must-see films of the summer, so it’s small wonder why all involved have entertained the possibility of a sequel. But what do you think? Do you feel Ansel Elgort’s getaway driver has more mileage in the tank? Or are you of the mindset that Wright’s latest should be remembered as a one-and-done action masterclass? Let us know your thoughts below.
