The Wayans brothers have never exactly been bastions of high quality cinema, with Marlon in particular a repeat offender responsible for a string of terrible comedies like Little Man, Dance Flick, A Haunted House and the sequel, Fifty Shades of Black, Naked and Sextuplets. None of those movies found anything even approaching critical acclaim, but several of them did decent business at the box office and the 48 year-old has been collaborating with Netflix on a regular basis, so there must be a good sized audience for his work.
One entry from the writer/actor/producer’s back catalogue that’s remained inexplicably popular is White Chicks, the 2004 comedic effort directed by Keenen Ivory and starring Shawn and Marlon in the lead roles. It sees two sibling FBI agents go undercover and end up tasked with protecting the socialite Wilson sisters, before eventually being forced to disguise themselves as the titular white chicks.
The movie did solid business in theaters after raking in almost $115 million on a budget of $37 million, and has gone on to find enduring longevity as a cult favorite. Rumors of a sequel have been swirling for well over a decade at this point, too, and in a recent interview, Wayans admitted that he’d still like to make it.
“People always say, ‘Could you do a White Chicks 2 now?’ I think definitely. A good joke is when you can make the people you’re parodying laugh. Who loves White Chicks the most? White chicks. In this environment, in this climate, we all need something to laugh at about ourselves.”
Co-star Terry Crews recently claimed that a follow-up was definitely in the works, but the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra star was quick to shut that down. That being said, he did reveal that the project is in the very earliest stages of development.
“Terry’s lying, but I ain’t going to say that to him because he’s too buff and I don’t want to get beat up. We’re working toward it. I’ll let you guys know when it happens, happens. But we’re moving slowly toward it. I like doing movies where I’m a black man. It’s a lot less makeup.”
Ignoring the fact that the first movie wasn’t that good, there’s obviously an element of risk in making a White Chicks sequel in today’s social and political climate, because you can guarantee that there’s going to be a very vocal minority pounding away at their keyboards complaining over double standards. Still, Wayans doesn’t seem deterred and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the project begin to materialize in the near future.
