Judd Apatow tried hard to get his “Superbad” cast to return for a sequel, but no one was interested in ruining a great thing. It turns out that’s not an excuse Apatow ever agreed with. From the way Apatow sees it, there’s no reason to think the cast and crew behind one of the most classic R-rated high school comedies of the 21st century wouldn’t be able to come up with and execute a worthy sequel.
“Eeryone was like, ‘Nah we don’t want to screw up ‘Superbad’ by accidentally making a crappy second one,’” Apatow recently said on the “Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum” podcast (via IndieWire). “And I would always say the same thing, ‘Well, that’s like saying don’t make the second episode of the ‘The Sopranos.’ Like, so why do you think we would screw up the second one?’”
“I always wanted them to do a sequel to ‘Superbad,’” Apatow said earlier in the interview. “I know that Jonah [Hill] said, ‘Oh it’ll be funny to do it when we’re 70 or 80,’ but I really wanted them to do a ‘Superbad’ in college where Jonah flunks out of college and just shows up and visits Michael Cera at college .”
Apatow never got to make his intended college-set “Superbad 2.” Hill revealed his aforementioned pitch for a sequel earlier this year in an interview with W Magazine, saying, “What I want to do is when we’re like 80s, do a ‘Superbad 2.’ Like, ‘old-folks-home ‘Superbad.’ Our spouses die, and we’re single again. That’s what I want ‘Superbad 2’ to be, and that’s the only way I would ever make it.”
Seth Rogen, who co-wrote “Superbad” in addition to starring in it, has long been the most vocal opponent of “Superbad 2.” The actor once said that a “Superbad” sequel is the one thing he would “100% probably never touch” for a sequel or reboot.
“Honestly, I don’t think it requires improvement or anything to be built upon it,” Rogen said. “I’m unbelievably proud of it. It really holds up — people still watch it, high school kids come up to tell me that they watched it for the first time and how they loved it. It’s worked its way into being viewed as one of the better high school movies that’s out there. I’m so terrified of subtracting from it in any way with a bad sequel or spinoff that I’d never do it. I have so few actual good accomplishments that I’m horrified to fuck with the ones I have.”
“Superbad” star Christopher Mintz-Plasse revealed in 2021 that a sequel would not be a bad idea, but he stressed that “[a female version] would be the way, for sure.”