Before Sunrise: Director Richard Linklater Has Promising Update on 4th Film

Before Midnight might not be the end of the Before trilogy, provided the characters have something to say.

By Nicole Drum

It's been over ten years since Before Midnight, the third film in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, opened in theaters, catching viewers up on Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) and their life after they reconnected in 2004's Before Sunset. The film saw the pair, now a couple with children, examining their relationship from their initial meeting (from 1995's Before Sunrise) to now. While the film concluded with the couple staying together, it may not be the end of the story. Speaking with Comic Book in support of his new film Hit Man, Linklater said "never say never" when asked if he might, one day, revisit the story.

"Never say never. I mean, we did kind of blow past our nine-year whatever thing, but we weren't too precious about that. You know, it's like that was kind of arbitrary to begin with. We'll do it when it makes sense, when those characters have something to say," he said. "Maybe it makes sense as you get older, you don't, you know, it's less urgent or something, but I don't think it ever goes away. So, who knows? Who the hell knows. Certainly nothing on the boards."

What is the Before Trilogy?

The Before Trilogy is a series of three films directed by Linklater that star Hawke and Delpy. The first film, 1995's Before Sunrise, saw Jesse (Hawke) an American student traveling Europe and Celine (Delpy) a French student visiting relatives, meet on a train to Paris and then spend the night wandering Vienna, falling in love in the process. At the end of the film, they go their separate ways but agree to meet again in the future. 2004's Before Sunset catches up with the characters nine years later one afternoon in Paris where the now-married author Jesse meets Celine while promoting his book that tells the story of their time in Vienna. They spend their afternoon talking about not following through with meeting up with one another again and, at the end of the film, Jesse chooses to stay in Paris with Celine. 2013's Before Midnight catches up with the pair once more nine years later where they are now a couple with twin daughters vacationing in Greece. The couple end up arguing over Jesse's desire to move to Chicago to be closer to his older son, Hank and end up examining their relationship before ultimately staying together.

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The idea of a fourth film has been discussed several times in the past with Hawke saying in 2020 that the nine-year space between the films might be something that changes should there be a fourth film, while Delpy told Variety in 2021 that while there had been discussions about a fourth film, it wasn't an idea that really worked and so it didn't happen.

What is Hit Man About?

While a fourth film in the Before series isn't currently in the works, Linklater's next film is Hit Man, which open sin theaters on June 4th. Hit Man is based on the true story of a hitman (played by Glen Powell) who enters into a romantic entanglement with a potential client (Adria Arjona), only to find out that the romance could be more dangerous than any job he's ever taken on. The film was co-written by Powell and Linklater and is based on an article in Texas Monthly by writer Skip Hollandsworth. Retta, Austin Amelio, and Molly Bernard also star.

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