Ryan Gosling's The Fall Guy opens in theaters today. The movie is inspired by a classic TV series starring Lee Majors that ran for five seasons. We had lots of Fall Guy on TV so the possibility that the new film could become the first in a franchise is certainly not lost on anybody. While it’s far too early to tell if we’ll get more Fall Guy movies, writer Drew Pearce is certainly up for writing them if given the chance.
CinemaBlend spoke to The Fall Guy writer Drew Pearce ahead of the The Fall Guy release date. Pearce is no stranger to franchises, having penned entries in the Iron Man series, a Fast & Furious movie, and one of the best Mission: Impossible movies in Rogue Nation. While the scribe wanted to avoid making predictions or suggestions that The Fall Guy was expected to be the first in the franchise, he also indicated if and when The Fall Guy 2 were to happen, he would love to write it. He certainly thinks the possibility for more exists. Pearce said…
Listen, nobody wants to goad the Movie Gods with Hubristic talk of sequels , I will say, I'm really excited for this movie to come out this weekend. It feels, literally, of a moment. Spring has sprung . There's a real ‘nature is healing’ vibe to this film. It's a good time. It's unashamedly a good time. And I've certainly, over the last few years, kind of relearned the value of the Friday night movie in my life, personally. And what I would say is that (it) becomes quite addictive. Because actually, you know, talking to people at the premier last night and over the last couple of weeks – actually making a piece of art that brings joy, I kind of think it's undervalued. So if we got the chance to do more of those Friday nights, I would be so here for it. And I think there's so many places to go with it.
In The Fall Guy TV series, Lee Majors' version of Colt Seavers was a professional stuntman who worked part-time as a bounty hunter. This created the show’s regular premise, which gave the character a reason to chase after somebody each week while adding plenty of stunts and action.
The new movie, while it ultimately turns the character into an amateur investigator, it gives Colt a more comedic spin, as he’s pretty bad at investigating. He probably would never choose to become a bounty hunter, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t potential for sequels in this version of The Fall Guy. Whatever new adventure gets dreamed up, the reason why Colt Seavers gets roped into another death-defying adventure isn’t honestly that important as long as the rest of the movie is good.
So far signs for a potential sequel are hard to read. Critics' response to The Fall Guy has been largely positive. It's one of the more fun movies on the 2024 release schedule so far, to be sure. I'm certainly one that loved the movie. The Fall Guy cast is incredible and I would love to see more movies with them together again. The movie made a little over $3 million in early previews and is expected to bring in $35-$40 million in its opening weekend.
That’s a solid if not blockbuster opening. With a reported budget of over $100 million, the movie is going to need to do more to be profitable, but if the audience response is as strong as the critics, we could certainly see the film do solid business over the next several weeks and ultimately become the win the studio would want to greenlight more.
