“The Greatest Showman” was one of 2017’s greatest surprises. Featuring Hugh Jackman in the title role of P.T. Barnum, the Barnum and Bailey Circus founder, the film was energetic and engrossing, even if it wasn’t always historically accurate. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the Oscar-winning songwriters for La La Land, provided the film’s incredible soundtrack, which brought the film’s musical numbers to life.
As it turned out, Hugh also possesses an impressive set of vocals, as seen by his impressive performance in the film’s supporting role alongside Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya (Spider-Man: Far From Home), all of whom were excellent in their respective roles. The $84 million film, which was released a few weeks before Christmas, was seen as a risk, but moviegoers loved it, and it ended up collecting $435 million worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing musical of all time.
There is already talk of a sequel to The Greatest Showman despite the fact that the film was self-contained. In fact, Hugh Jackman announced this past April that development on the sequel has already begun. In what capacity will they be returning? How many more of those wonderful songs will Pasek and Paul deliver? Moreover, when can we look forward to seeing the film in theaters? So far, this is what we’ve found out.
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The Greatest Showman 2 cast
The Greatest Showman 2 is still in the early stages of development, so we don’t have a lot of solid information to go on. If we assume that Jackman will be back, we’d be wrong.
The sequel could focus on other characters from the first film, such as Zac Efron’s Phillip Carlyle (a fictional character created for the film) and Rebecca Ferguson’s Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish opera singer whose American fortunes were boosted thanks to Barnum’s involvement in her career.
Michael Gracey and Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon, who wrote the first film’s script, are “working on a treatment” for a sequel, Jackman told NME, but he doesn’t know yet whether or not they’ll welcome him back.
After being asked whether he will reprise his part, Jackman said: “I don’t know, I don’t know,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. However, “I am interested in participating, but I am unsure if my character would be the focus of the project.”
The Greatest Showman sequel is still a ways off, so we’ll have to wait and see how many of the original cast members return for the next chapter. That, of course, will be mostly determined by the filmmakers.
What can we expect from The Greatest Showman 2?
To tell a fantastic story, The Greatest Showman took a lot of creative liberties with its historical content. It is true that certain of Barnum’s attitudes regarding his performers and the public were very much of their day, but a Hollywood musical biopic can not necessarily be expected to adhere to the strictest standards of historical authenticity, as is the case with this film. A lot of people enjoyed the film as a light-hearted family outing, and the free handling of its subject matter should bode well for the sequel.
This is due to the fact that the filmmakers of The Greatest Showman 2 have a lot of creative freedom with this sequel. Instead of focusing solely on Barnum, the movie may investigate the people he impacted and the lives he affected, whether they were genuine or fake, as Hugh Jackman hinted in his interview with Entertainment Weekly.
It is also possible to look at Barnum’s later years when he used his well-documented hoaxing experience to refute fake “entertainers” like mediums and spiritualists, whom he felt took advantage of the public by manipulating their desire to speak with deceased loved ones.
Even if he served two terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives as well, the concept of Hugh Jackman singing in support of a budget bill’s passage does not scream “stunning cinema.”
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Even while The Greatest Showman 2’s storyline could go in a number of different directions, we won’t know exactly what it will be until the movie is farther along in production.
Is there a release date for the sequel to The Greatest Showman yet?
Of course, because the film is still in the “twinkle in the directors’ eyes” stage, we don’t have a release date yet. It’s possible, though, that The Greatest Showman 2 will take longer than typical to reach theaters despite the fact that it’s a high priority for 20th Century Fox (and its new parent company, Disney), considering how well the original picture did.
Because the original film took a phenomenal seven years from conception to completion, we believe this to be the case. Pre-production changes were made in response to a casual remark made by Gracey, which led to a reorientation away from the original plan of making a straight biography.
While promoting The Greatest Showman to Entertainment Weekly, the filmmaker jokingly discussed the film’s shift in tone. You should play to your strengths and create a musical with the title of The Greatest Showman if you are going to call it The Greatest Showman, I replied.” “That stupid statement robbed me of seven years of my life.”
Jackman has made it clear that the sequel will be a musical from the start, but he’s also made it clear that these things sometimes take time to come together. In an interview with NME, the star of The Greatest Showman noted, “The… problem is, [The Greatest Showman] did take eight years to get done and it wasn’t all eight years of convincing people. “Writing takes a long time.”
Considering that The Greatest Showman 2 is still in its infancy and that it’s likely to be released over the holiday season, which was a significant component in the first film’s success, we believe that the sequel won’t arrive until at least 2021. Once filming begins in earnest, we’ll have a clearer notion of when the movie will be released.
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When will The Greatest Showman 2 be released?
Even if you’re surprised, there isn’t a trailer for The Greatest Showman 2 yet, and there won’t be for at least a year. Even if a sequel is in the works, fans of the first film, as well as those who purchased the soundtrack record, which sold more than 5 million copies, should be encouraged by the news.
It’s safe to assume that Pasek and Paul will return for the sequel’s soundtrack, and we can only hope that the teaser for The Greatest Showman 2 includes a sneak preview of the song that will dominate the charts for at least a year after its release.
In theory, we could see some sort of teaser for the 2020 Christmas season flicks, but this is just speculative guesswork at this point. While we wait for The Greatest Showman 2 to get underway, you can be sure that we’ll be keeping an eye out for any pertinent information that emerges.
