So Tell Me Do You Wanna Go… Back? Work Has Begun On The Greatest Showman Sequel

Cinemas

Singing, dancing, a rags-to-riches story, an all-star cast and everyone’s favourite modern showman, Australia’s Hugh Jackman out front, it seemed a recipe for success. However, critics had already panned The Greatest Showman before its release late in 2017. Fast forward just over a year and not only did the film pack out cinemas, its soundtrack took out the coveted biggest selling album of 2018 in both the UK and the US and the film is now the third highest-grossing musical of all time. Add to that a cover album The Greatest Showman: Reimagined was released last November with stars such as P!nk, Panic at the Disco, Kelly Clarkson, Kesha and Pentatonix contributing tracks and Hugh Jackman opening the Brit Awards last week. With the film’s enormous popularity, talk of a sequel is not difficult to believe. It’s more that it’s taken this long to come out.

But come out it has with director Michael Gracey confirming to the UK’s The Sun that work on a sequel has commenced and that Jackman is involved. “When a movie becomes as big a success as this, it’s only natural there is demand for a sequel,” Gracey stated. “So those discussions have started and we are working on one right now.”

The film is only in early discussions at present and it has not been revealed if the new film will follow on from the first or be, in fact a prequel and flesh out more of P.T. Barnum’s earlier career.

The Sun reports that Jackman is likely to return and lead the cast, though whether other key players from the original film return – Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya and Keala Settle – is currently unclear. It appears likely that Oscar-winning songwriting duo Pasek and Paul will return.

It is definitely very early days for this new film, but even this speculation and confirmation is very exciting news indeed.

Clare Sidoti
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Clare Sidoti

Clare Sidoti is 4 Your Excitement's Editor-at-Large. Clare has a BA (Theatre and Film Studies) from the University of New South Wales, Australia and an MA Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex, UK. She currently works for an NGO that runs human rights training in the Asia Pacific region. You can find her on twitter with her eclectic musings on the arts, entertainment and human rights. Some of her favourite topics to cover include Darren Criss, Chris Colfer, Glee and Star Wars.
Clare Sidoti
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