Rose Byrne Is Ready to Make Bridesmaids 2, On One Condition

Rose Byrne is absolutely game to make a sequel to one of her biggest breakout films: Bridesmaids. 

“If all the girls were in, I absolutely would,” Byrne recently told PEOPLE when asked if Bridesmaids 2 was something she’d ever consider. That said, Byrne was also clear that the first Bridesmaids “was so magical and so beloved,” and therefore making a sequel to it would be a “hard act to follow.”

When director Paul Feig (The Office, Ghostbusters 2016) released Bridesmaids in 2011, it broke all kinds of glass ceilings. The film’s success ($300+ million on a $32.5M budget) single-handedly kicked open the door to female raunch-comedy being a mainstream movie genre; it also helped launch actresses like Byrne, Kristen Wiig, Mellissa McCarthy, and Ellie Kemper to new levels of their careers, cementing them as mainstream comedic stars. There was also the improvisational nature of Bridesmaids that made it an especially ‘lightning in the bottle’ achievement that would be hard to replicate – making it an even bigger risk to pursue a sequel. 

“People want a Bridesmaids 2, which would be fun, but think about it. The reason we love that movie so much is because Kristen Wiig’s character is going through the fire and repairing herself,” Feig said on the Drew Barrymore Show Recently. “Does she go through the fire again and repair again? Or do we just have a ‘crazy’ wedding?” 

Behind the scenes, all of the actresses from Bridesmaids are now, as stated, much bigger stars than they were when the first film came out. Getting them back together would be logistically difficult, if not expensive. Rose Byrne alone has quietly become one of the biggest box office hitters in Hollywood. After Bridesmaids, she continued on to the X-Men movies with First Class (and its sequels), established a hit horror franchise with the Insidious movies, and continued making successful comedies with The Internship, the Neighbors films, and even kids films like Peter Rabbit and its sequel. Currently, she’s been starring in the Apple TV+ dark comedy series Physical (coming up on its third and final season) as well as a new rom-com series on Apple with her Neighbors co-star Seth Rogen called Platonic. Her third Insidious movie, The Red Door, will be in theaters this summer. 

Meanwhile, Melissa McCarthy has (obviously) become a major star of film and TV – currently seen as Ursula in Disney’s Little Mermaid live-action remake. Still, McCarthy told PEOPLE she’d be down for Bridesmaids 2 with no reservations at all: 

“I would do a Bridesmaids sequel this afternoon, right now,” McCarthy said. “That group of women was the most magical thing ever. Almost all of us were really good friends already. I think it was such a magical time.” She went on to joke that the cast is “all in our nineties and [writers] Kristen [Wiig] and Annie [Mumolo] are like, ‘Should we team back up?’ I’d be like, ‘Yes. Yeah, we should.’” 

Bridesmaids 2 is still just a fan wish at this point.