MGM is moving forward with a sequel to its animated The Addams Family movie reboot and has already scheduled it for an October 2021 release date. Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan (Sausage Party), The Addams Family only just premiered in theaters a few days ago. It’s already done well by itself though, opening to a larger than expected $30.3 million in the U.S. and landing in second place at the weekend box office behind Joker, but ahead of Will Smith’s expensive sci-fi thriller Gemini Man.
The original Addams Family cartoon strips were created by Charles Adams and published in The New Yorker beginning in the 1930s. The comics revolved around a group of creepy and kooky aristocrats designed to serve as a satire of the ideal American family unit in the 20th century (something that, tellingly, resulted in patriarch Gomez being completely devoted to his wife Morticia and seeing her as his equal). Over the decades since then, The Addams Family have inspired a popular 1960s TV show, three live-action films in the ’90s, and even a Broadway musical, in addition to the animated reboot.
According to Deadline, MGM has now scheduled The Addams Family 2 to hit theaters on October 22, 2021, following the first movie’s opening weekend. The animated Addams Family is already well on its way to recouping its $40 million production budget at the worldwide box office, which explains why the studio decided to give the go-ahead to a sequel so quickly.
Powered by an all-star voice cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Allison Janney, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, and more, The Addams Family follows the titular clan as they flee to a spooky, abandoned asylum in New Jersey, only to cross paths with a perfection-obsessed reality TV host (Janney) thirteen years later, as their children prepare to attend public school for the first time. The film garnered middling reviews from critics, with many praising the great voice actors but taking issue with the movie’s overly simple themes about acceptance and somewhat sanitized approach to the Addams Family franchise’s darkly off-beat humor. General audiences, however, were more positive (particularly the movie’s target demographic of children 12 and under), so that bodes well for the sequel.
MGM would no doubt love for The Addams Family to become the first entry in a family-friendly animated film series that releases a new sequel every couple years, in the same way that Sony’s Hotel Transylvania franchise has since it launched in 2012. The Addams Family 2 will release even closer to Halloween than its predecessor in 2021, which should only improve its odds of becoming an equal-sized hit (if not a bigger one), and guaranteeing an Addams Family 3 in the process. If nothing else, The Addams Family 2 ought to fare pretty well as counter-programming to the slasher sequel Halloween Ends (which arrives a week earlier) during that year’s spooky season.
Source: Deadline
