‘I think I started crying’: Will Smith might make a sequel to one of his best-known films despite it nearly tanking his career

We just found out Will Smith is working on a Hitch sequel in the most awkward way imaginable. Director Andy Tennant recently sat down for a retrospective interview marking the film’s 20th anniversary, revealing that he and Smith never truly saw eye to eye on how to make the movie — a creative clash that ultimately cost him a chance to return for the yet-to-be-confirmed sequel.

It’s impossible to overstate Will Smith’s star power in the mid-2000s. He simply had the Midas touch. Smith was on top of the world, so he decided to break the barrier that had long kept Black actors from leading romantic comedies that did well. And in a way, he accomplished his goal — the film ultimately grossed over $370 million on a budget of at least $50 million. But at one point, Tennant actually expected it to be the film that would tank Smith’s career.

Smith is known for being a very involved star who won’t make a movie he doesn’t believe in and will completely refuse to shoot a scene he doesn’t want to be in. This level of assertiveness used to be something fans never knew about — one could easily imagine that the director and producers called all the shots. Perhaps one of the side effects of the Baldoni-Blake conflict is fans realizing just how much power major stars also hold on set.

Tennant shared with Business Insider that trouble began right at the onset, during pre-production. According to him, Smith wanted to back out of the movie just three days before filming was set to start. Moreover, he nearly refused to shoot the iconic Ellis Island and Brooklyn doorstep scenes until various team members convinced him to trust his director. And that’s not even counting all the last minute rewrites Smith demanded. Tennant revealed that at one point, Smith even brought in his own script. Though that script will forever be lost in the ether of Hollywood, Tennant insisted it was so bad he was willing to get fired if that’s what it took to make his displeasure with the script clear to the studio heads.

Despite the challenges, Tennant looks back on the filming with great fondness. In the interview, he shared how impressed he was with his cast — not just Smith but also Kevin James and Eva Mendes, particularly for how willing they were to go off-script and ad-lib if it improved their material. He specifically mentioned the scene where Smith’s character teaches Kevin James’ character how to dance, revealing that it was entirely improvised. Apparently, the only reason Smith had a remote control in his mouth was to stop himself from laughing.

Unfortunately, that’s not to say Smith enjoyed the loose and improvised nature of the shoot. Tennant revealed that after they finally wrapped the last scene, Smith left the set without so much as a goodbye, and everyone expected the movie to be a disaster. Tennant even admitted that after filming the final scene, he called his wife and told her he had ruined both his own career and Will Smith’s. He then left his footage with his editors and went on vacation, only to return to the most surprising news imaginable.

“I turned on my phone expecting a disaster and literally my editors, my brilliant editors who I’ve worked with for 30 years, they said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, this movie is hilarious.’ I think I started crying.”

Will Smith’s representatives have not officially commented on any sequel with Sony, but if one is in the works, it’s hard to imagine it turning out well. In a way, that’s emblematic of Smith’s career post-Oscar slap — he’s looking back too much, focusing on what’s already gone instead of taking on new challenging roles with colleagues who push him. He will never truly make a comeback if he only keeps looking back.