Danny DeVito “Always Wanted” to Make Matilda 2, Shares Sequel Idea

If you asked fans of Danny DeVito which of the actor’s most popular they’d want to see him reprise now, most of them would probably say The Penguin. DeVito’s turn as the classic DC villain in 1992’s Batman Returns still remains one of the more popular antagonistic performances in comic book movie history. However, if you ask DeVito which of his roles he’d like to revisit, he’s not going to mention his Batman baddie. This may come as a surprise, but he’d actually prefer another run at the Matilda franchise.

DeVito starred in the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda in 1996 alongside his wife, Cheers star Rhea Perlman, and he must have really enjoyed his experience working on the film. During the press junket for Jumanji: The Next Level, ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis asked DeVito and co-star Danny Glover which of their previous movies they’d most like to revisit, and DeVito quickly mentioned Matilda.

“I always wanted to do Matilda 2, but when the kid was still a kid,” DeVito says in the interview. “But that was like 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Maybe Matilda has a kid and we can do something that, I don’t know.”

Of course, the kid DeVito is referring to is Matilda star Mara Wilson, who is now 32 years old. Unless a sequel movie featured the character as an adult and dealing with her own child, as DeVito suggests, a sequel to that movie probably isn’t in the cards. However, a reboot of the property is much more likely.

Almost exactly one year ago, Netflix announced a partnership with The Roald Dahl Story Company to turn many of the author’s beloved works, including Matilda, into animated TV projects. The streaming service noted that the Roald Dahl universe of stories would be released as “a new slate of animated event series,” though a timeline for the release of these projects was never mentioned.

“Immersing ourselves in the extraordinary worlds of Roald Dahl stories has been an honor and a massive amount of fun, and we are grateful for the trust the Roald Dahl Story Company and the Dahl family have placed in our team to deliver more moments of shared joy to families around the world,” commented Melissa Cobb, Vice President of Kids & Family Content at Netflix. “We have great creative ambition to reimagine the journeys of so many treasured Dahl characters in fresh, contemporary ways with the highest quality animation and production values.”

Would you like to see another Matilda movie? Let us know in the comments!

Jumanji: The Next Level arrives in theaters on December 13th.