The Wet Hot American Summer franchise consists of a film, a documentary, two miniseries’ on Netflix, but franchise co-creator, writer, and star Michael Showalter isn’t sure if they’ll be going back to camp.
The Big Sick director spoke about the possibility during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter today while discussing his career and latest project, The Dropout. While explaining how he dramatized the real-life story of Elizabeth Holmes, the conversation turned to his series, which was actor Bradley Cooper’s on-screen debut. Showalter noted the Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later and First Day of Camp series were fun to make with director David Wain, but at 51, he’s less interested in performing than he was years ago.
“The door is always open for that kind of thing. It’s not something I feel any sense of urgency about. I’m getting old and misshapen. But I could certainly see something happening somewhere down the road. But again, I like the behind-the-scenes part. It doesn’t feel as urgent because it would involve me performing and that’s not something that is super exciting to me.”
Showalter is fair here. The sequel series depicted the characters people first got to know in 2001 as adults returning to Camp Firewood for nostalgia after moving on with their lives. As well, the cast, which also included Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, David Hyde Pierce, Ken Marino, and Elizabeth Banks, is much more in demand today. It would be hard to get them all together, and so, like the summer experiences of youth bygone, this series will likely stay in hearts and memory alone.
