Will Brutal Legend 2 Ever Happen? Here's What Tim Schafer Says

Brutal Legend 2
(Image credit: Double Fine Productions)

One of the most beloved games that sort of came and faded away during the last generation was Double Fine Productions' Brutal Legend. During a recent Q&A session at the E3 Coliseum this year in Los Angeles, California, Jack Black and Tim Schafer finally addressed the future of Brutal Legend 2. Shaefer says there will be a sequel, someday.

Gamespot managed to catch the moment, which occurred during the middle of the conversation that Schafer was having with Jack Black. As it's noted in the article, someone yelled out about Brutal Legend 2 after Schafer and Black began discussing what the process was like when Schafer and Black met for the first time to work on the original game. Schafer, however, weaseled around the conversation about Brutal Legend 2 by saying...

"Someday we'll make that game."

He also mentioned that it would be very expensive.

Both Schafer and Black talked about some of the corners they had to cut in order to get certain things done for the game. For instance, Jack Black really wanted to help promote the title, and so he tried landing a gig as Tenacious D to open for Motorhead during a concert just a day or so ahead of the game's release. The whole point was to help ratchet up some publicity for the title. Black explained that Motorhead's manager gave them the go-ahead to open for the band, but the late Lemmy Kilmister wasn't really having any of it when Black went backstage to meet with him before the concert got underway.

Black explained that despite running afoul of Lemmy, the manager managed to smooth things over and Tenacious D got to open for Motorhead.

The real kick was that Black dressed up as the lead character from Brutal Legend as a way to pay tribute to the roadies around the world who work hard to help keep bands operating while on the road.

Both Jack Black and Tim Schafer shared plenty of jokes in between, and Schafer was obviously a bit disappointed he didn't have anything to share about a new Brutal Legend game, but a lot of that was in due part to the fact that the first game just didn't quite take off sales wise.

Over the years, though, the game has slowly managed to find an audience and it's been steadily gaining traction as a cult classic ever since.

Given that development tools are a lot cheaper, art is much easier to make, and the consoles are a lot more powerful, a sequel to Brutal Legend wouldn't seem too far-fetched in today's game industry ecosystem. The real challenge would be finding a publisher willing to finance the game, and of course making sure there's no scope creep that wildly bloats the development budget.

The original game received quite a bit of praise for its basic musical and action-adventure elements, but the real-time strategy segments spawned quite a bit of negative feedback. Whether or not a direct sequel would keep all of the elements from the original and then some remains to be seen, but in the meantime, Schafer still has his hands full working with the rest of the Double Fine team on Psychonauts 2.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.