The Addams Family Directors Explain Their Approach to the Upcoming Sequel

Charles Addams’ beloved cartoon family returned to the big screen this year in their very first animated feature film. The Addams Family performed much better than many projected, opening to $30 million at the box office in its first weekend (nearly recouping its $40 million budget) on its way to its current global haul of $130 million, which will only continue to rise over the next couple of weeks. With the numbers in its favor, MGM quickly ordered a sequel, set to hit theaters in 2021.

What’s in store for that sequel? The plot of The Addams Family 2 is obviously under wraps, but while speaking with ComicBook.com, directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon offered up a little glimpse into their approach to the follow-up film.

“With any sequel like that you’ve got to move the characters forward and try and explore some new territory with them,” Tiernan tells us. “So you know there’s no point in just regurgitating the same stuff no matter how funny it might be. So obviously we can’t say too much about it, but that’s something that we will be doing. We laid the groundwork with this movie, especially for people who weren’t familiar with the Addams Family. Because of course, has been over 20 years since the last major movie with the Addams’, so there are a lot of younger [viewers], and especially younger generation who didn’t know who these characters were at all. So we had to establish that in the first movie, and sort of reintroduce the characters as well as make sure that long time Addams fans recognize that they love the characters.

“So we did that, we feel successfully, in the current movie. And so the next step is to know well, how can we go bigger or better with these characters? So that’s basically what we’ll do soon, is develop and trace.”

It also helps that Vernon is no stranger to sequels, his first gig as a director was Shrek 2. Following up such a hit was no easy task, but according to Vernon, it was all about taking the established characters and finding a way to put them new situations that people can relate to.

“You really need to have a story that heightens the emotional stakes for the characters,” Vernon explains. “Now that they — I’m not saying this is the story, I’m just saying this is the way you approach it. Now that they are friends with all the people in the neighborhood, what else is going to threaten them? What’s going to threaten that? You know what I mean? How does everything that they earned in the first movie come up for grabs in the second movie, and what do they need to do to emotionally get beyond the next level? So I think that’s the way we’re approaching this next film.”

What are you hoping to see in The Addams Family 2? Let us know in the comments!

The Addams Family is currently playing in theaters.