Next year, the cult classic horror movieThe Monster Squadwill celebrate its 30th Anniversary, which was a box office flop when it hit theaters in 1987, but eventually became a cult classic. The movie was written byShane BlackandFred Dekker, andRyan Goslingrecently revealed thatThe Monster Squadwas the reason he wanted to work withShane BlackonThe Nice Guys. During a new interview, it seems thatShane Blackwould in fact be interested in makingMonster Squad 2.
“I’d love to revisit [Monster Squad]. I hope that somebody at some point says that it would be great. They have all these new Universal monsters… At some point, the Abbot & Costello meet Frankenstein version… I wonder if there’s room for Monster Squad in there?”
The original movie followed a group of young kids who form a club that is devoted to monsters, but soon get more than they bargained for when Count Dracula arrives back on Earth, accompanied by Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, and the Gillman. These creatures are in search of a powerful amulet that will grant them power to rule the world, withThe Monster Squadthe only ones who can stop them.IGNrecently spoke withShane Black, and when asked if a potential follow-up could be set in present-day, following the same kids as adults, the filmmaker had this to say.
“When you say the kids are grown-up the first thing I go to is the movie, or the book really,ItbyStephen King, which is about kids who fight monsters when they’re young, then as grown-ups they’re sort of beckoned and they have to return to their childhood hometown. And I think that’s kind of close to what you’re saying in a way. I don’t know how you would distance yourself from that. It would be interesting to have two movies - one The Monster Squad, and one The Monster Squad and they’re 30 years apart and so are the kids - the characters have aged. As long as people understood that’s what we’re doing, I think that could be fun. That’s a good idea!”
Of course, that is essentially the same format as theIt remake, which is being split into two movies. The first movie, which is currently in production, follows the group known as The Losers Club, who take on the nefarious Pennywise the clown. The second movie brings these characters back together as adults, as It returns once again. Still, it doesn’t seem thatShane Blackis actively working on aMonster Squadsequel, but he also teased that he originally didn’t know the first movie eventually became a cult hit.
“The cult surprised [me]. I didn’t even realize it had been successful. I loved it, I had fun working on it and it was one of the first things I’d ever written. And it wasn’t just that it wasn’t a hit - it was a huge failure. No one saw it. I don’t know how on earth it caught on years later.”
With theItremake, and the new hit Netflix shows likeStranger ThingsandThe Get Down, the 80s are most definitely back in Hollywood. It’s certainly possible that there’s a big enough audience to warrant a sequel toThe Monster Squad, but we’re not sure ifShane Blackwould even be available to work on the script. He’s currently developing his newPredatorproject, and he also hasDoc SavagewithDwayne Johnsonin the works.
