‘Not a single person on this planet wants this’: An Oscar-winning classic is getting a sequel, and everyone has the same question: Why?

Sure Gladiator deserved a sequel, but not all Oscar-winning stories need to be stretched and brought back after decades. Do we have a shortage of original screenwriters? Hire me, please.

Sequels have defined 2024 cinematically—from literal “Marvels” like Deadpool 3 and Venom 3 to animated masterpieces like Kung Fu Panda 4 and Despicable Me 4 and much-awaited continuations like Dune: Part 2 and Gladiator 2—we had a sequel releasing almost every month. But if this trend pours down to next year, especially with unwanted sequels, I’ll lose my mind. But that’s exactly what’s happening.

The latest movie greenlit under the rigid nobody-wants-it-but-we’ll-still-make-it resolve of production houses has us questioning if Hollywood is running out of original ideas. The film will be a sequel to a 16-year-old, eight-time Oscar-winning classic that very clearly resolved its plot already. On top of everything, the concept of the original film was not well-received by the very country that the film was based on. Ringing any bells yet? It’s Dev Patel’s Millionaire.

The popular Indian news outlet, The Hindustan Times bashed the film upon its release, calling it  “an assault on Indian self-esteem.” So why does Swati Shetty, a producer of Indian origin, want to make another stretch to the already controversial film? Even from a global perspective, users on X from all nationalities responded to the news with one consistent question: “Why?” One user rightfully asserted that “not a single person on this planet wants this.”

But after securing the film sequel and television rights to the film, Shetty and Grant Kessman, her partner at the production house Bridge7, announced their motivations behind creating the sequel:

“Some stories stay with us long after the credits roll and Slumdog Millionaire is undoubtedly one of them. Its narrative is universal, cutting across cultural and geographical lines and it embodies the kind of stories we love — ones that bridge entertainment with profound human experiences.” (via Variety)

Shetty and Kessman sang long praises of how “extraordinary” the film is in “how it brought together talent from across the world to make a global winning team.” But is it that hard to come up with a new original screenplay that features diverse characters and worlds? Either way, we can’t really stop the sequel from happening now.

Slumdog Millionaire 2 will soon be in the works at Bridge7, which secured the film sequel and television rights in a deal struck with the U.K.-based Celador, which produced the original film with Film4. “I am delighted that Swati and Grant have chosen the Slumdog sequel to launch their newly formed company,” said Paul Smith, chairman of Celador International.

All we can hope for now is Shetty utilizes her 25 years of industry experience from Netflix, Imagine Entertainment, and Disney, and Kessman uses his 20 years of experience at CAA as a TV literary agent to make something worthy of a sequel. For a refresher, the original film followed a young man from the slums competing in India’s version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Fans wisecracked suggesting the possible title of the sequel to be “Slumdog Billionaire.”