Any movie born from the partnership between Netflix and Happy Madison Productions is guaranteed to draw in big numbers, but Murder Mystery is the most successful by far. In fact, it’s one of the streaming service’s most-watched original films ever after bringing in 73 million viewers in the first four weeks it was available when it was added to the library in June 2019.
While a 44% score on Rotten Tomatoes might not be a stamp of the highest quality, it was still good enough to position the continental caper as the third highest-rated Happy Madison effort of all-time behind Hubie Halloween and 50 First Dates. Adam Sandler generates better chemistry with Jennifer Aniston that he has with any of his female leads with the exception of Drew Barrymore, and it’s the two solid central performances that power an otherwise lightweight comedy vehicle.
In October 2019, it was announced that a sequel was in development, which gives Murder Mystery the distinction of being just the second Sandler comedy to ever get another installment after Grown Ups. Not much has been said about the project since then, but we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Netflix was developing a Witcher prequel before it was announced – that the next adventure for the longtime married couple will take its fair share of cues from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary icon and be more “Sherlock Holmes-like.”
The first Murder Mystery positioned Sandler and Aniston as hapless pawns in a game that they managed to stumble their way through, but the sequel will reportedly allow them to do some sleuthing and detective work of their own, which at least promises a new twist on the formula that should freshen things up a bit.
