Forrest Gump is an all-time classic American film, but the plans to make a sequel fizzled out and Forrest Gump 2 was never made. The original Forrest Gump was a massive success, both critically and financially. It made over $678 million in box offices over the years (via Box Office Mojo), and it has a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Forrest Gump is one of Tom Hanks’ best movies, and certainly one of his most beloved, so it would have made sense to capitalize on its wild popularity. Forrest Gump 2 never became a reality, though, for a few reasons.

The original Forrest Gump was based on Winston Groom’s novel of the same name, though the Forrest Gump movie was quite different from the book. Groom also wrote a sequel to that novel, titled “Gump & Co.” after the film’s success, but director Robert Zemeckis never adapted the sequel. The fact that there was a story ready to put to film, combined with the success of the original movie, should have been more than enough reason for Forrest Gump 2 to hit screens. That sequel never happened, though, mostly due to its rocky development.

Forrest Gump 2 Talks Hit A Dead End (Very Quickly)

There was initially some interest in making Forrest Gump 2, and an entire script was written in 2001, but it still never made it anywhere near a screen. Tom Hanks explained why Forrest Gump 2 never happened in a past interview, despite the progress it was making in development.

“I will say that, with a long time in between, we did take a stab at talking about another Forrest Gump that lasted all of 40 minutes. And then we never…we said, ‘Guys, come on.’ A smart thing I did is I’ve never signed a contract that had a contractual obligation to a sequel. I’ve always said, ‘Guys, if there’s a reason to do it, let’s do it. But you guys can’t force me.’ There is that natural inclination that is one of pure commerce that says, ‘Hey, you just had a hit, so do it again and you’ll have a hit.’”

As Hanks mentioned, he has taken an approach to his movies where he’ll only make a sequel if he feels there’s a reason to do so. Evidently, Hanks didn’t think there was much reason to make Forrest Gump 2, even after just 40 minutes of discussion. It’s not clear exactly when Hanks spoke with Zemeckis, but it might have been the final nail in the coffin of Forrest Gump 2, especially considering how likely it seemed. Groom said he was fine with Paramount creating a sequel based on his work, and the studio was reportedly looking into making the movie in 2007 (via Cinema Blend).

How September 11 Changed Plans For Forrest Gump 2

While losing Hanks was likely the last straw for the sequel, there were also some outside influences that kept Forrest Gump 2 from being made. Forrest Gump 2 planned to continue the original’s focus on American history with some of the biggest events of the late 1980s and 1990s, from O.J. Simpson’s arrest to meeting Princess Diana. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, however, created a problem for that plan. Eric Roth, who wrote the script for Forrest Gump 2, told Yahoo Entertainment that he turned the script in on September 10, and that 9/11 had made the film feel “meaningless.”

“Tom [Hanks] and I and Bob [Zemeckis] got together on 9/11 to sort of commiserate about how life was in America and how tragic it was. And we looked at each other and said, ‘This movie has no meaning anymore, in that sense.'”

Roth also said that Forrest Gump 2 originally would have focused its emotional climax on the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Forrest was supposed to have a close relationship with a Native American woman who worked in the government building that was attacked. Roth said that the Oklahoma City bombing was “diminished only in tragedy, I guess, because it’s the same tragedy,” after 9/11. Hanks, Roth, and Zemeckis felt that depicting a massive terrorist attack so soon after 9/11 would have been disrespectful, so Forrest Gump 2 was ultimately scrapped.

Forrest Gump 2 Would Have Been A Disaster

In the end, it’s probably for the best that Forrest Gump 2 was never made, and some of its plot points made that clear. Roth said that Forrest Gump 2 would have started with his son, Forrest Jr., being diagnosed with AIDS. Focusing on the AIDS epidemic and the Oklahoma City bombing would have made Forrest Gump 2 extremely dark. The original movie had some dark moments – Vietnam was obviously quite a serious subject, for example – but it was mostly a lighthearted way of poking fun at relatively distant American history. Forrest Gump 2 would have come across as making light of several very recent tragedies.

Aside from the obvious problems with depicting such recent events, there’s also a sense that Forrest Gump 2 would never have been able to live up to the original. Forrest Gump is a classic, and continuing the story would have cheapened Forrest Gump‘s ending. It also simply didn’t need an update: the original is so inherently tied to that era of American history that trying to bring Forrest even further into the modern day would have come across as an out of place cash-grab. Audiences will likely never be able to see a sequel to Forrest Gump, but that story doesn’t really need to be told.

Sources: Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes, Cinema Blend, Yahoo Entertainment