One of this weekend's biggest releases is Dwayne Johnson's comedy Baywatch. With franchise films being the order of the day, every movie considers sequel possibilities very early on, and Baywatch is no different. As it happens, there's apparently already an idea for a story if Baywatch is successful enough to get itself a sequel. According to producer Beau Flynn, a theoretical Baywatch 2 would bring back the entire cast from the first film, but drop them in an entirely different setting, someplace overseas.
We have an amazing story already. We're bringing back Shannon and Swift who wrote on the first one, and I know Dwayne would be in, I know Zac and all the girls would be. We just have this really cool idea to put them in this whole new world. We would take it overseas.
The producer doesn't elaborate what he means by "overseas' in his comments to Variety, so the options are quite extensive. The end of the Baywatch movie brings in a character that is said to be working in the company's Hawaii division, but Hawaii isn't usually referred to as being "overseas" even though it technically is. Maybe someplace on the Mediterranean or Australia? Really, anyplace that has beaches is fair game, and if they'll actually be shooting on location, then no wonder the entire cast is willing to return for a sequel.
Of course, why a bunch southern California lifeguards would go to some foreign beach together is anybody's guess, but the beauty of the sort of comedy that Baywatch is, means that it really doesn't matter. The fact that people are doing things that don't make any sense, like lifeguards acting like they're cops, is the primary joke of the movie. The justification for sending an entire team of lifeguards to Bali, or wherever, will probably be paper thin, and that's the point.
It certainly makes some sense to shift the action to a new location for a potential Baywatch 2. So much of the franchise is based on looking at pretty people, that adding an equally pretty location just follows. Also, adding a new location makes the addition of new characters easy to do. It appears that the plan is to bring everybody back for the sequel, but new characters are virtually guaranteed as part of any sequel idea.
It's far too early to tell if Baywatch is really looking at a sequel or not. The movie does have a lot going for it, like a recognizable brand name, and Dwayne Johnson in the lead, two things that will likely spell international success even if the movie isn't a smash domestically. In the global box office that's what really matters.
