Trainspotting was a smash hit upon its 1996 release. The groundbreaking film brought Irvine Welsh’s novel of the same name to life, and made stars of Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Ewan Bremner.
Rumours of a sequel have floated around ever since, with director Danny Boyle openly admitting that he wants a second instalment to happen, and cast members seemingly more than happy to reprise their roles. Ewan McGregor notably had a falling out with Boyle after he gave the lead role in The Beach to Leonardo DiCaprio. However, the actor has more recent indicated that he would like to reprise his role in the film which shot him to fame nearly twenty years ago.
Up until this point in time, no concrete plans have come to fruition but speaking to Deadline at the first public screening of his latest film, Steve Jobs, Boyle confirmed that Trainspotting 2 (as it is currently called) will happen soon. In fact, the director is intending to make it his next project.
“All the four main actors want to come back and do it. Now it is only a matter of getting all their schedules together, which is complicated by two of them doing American TV series.”
The TV shows he refers to are Once Upon A Time (Carlyle) and Elementary (Miller) but his problem in assembling the original cast might go further than that. Bremner is also working regularly and McGregor has just finished shooting Beauty and the Beast; the latter also has several more films to be released throughout the remainder of this year and next. However, if Boyle is free and all the cast are up for returning, it could well be a case of making the time, rather than finding it.
Certainly, a Trainspotting sequel makes sense; Welsh even released a follow-up novel (entitled “Porn”) back in 2002. That book picked up ten years after the event of Trainspotting, with Sick Boy (Miller) returning to Scotland to make a porn film. He enlists the help of Mark Renton (McGregor), but things take a turn when Spud (Bremner) announces Sick Boy’s plans to Begbie (Carlyle), who is fresh out of prison. While Boyle has stated that he doesn’t feel Porn is as great a story as Trainspotting, he has also said he would like to base his movie sequel on the events that take place.
That, combined with the fact that 2016 marks the twentieth anniversary of Trainspotting’s release, surely means the time is ripe to return. It will be interesting to see how quickly Boyle moves on this since it would make sense to harness some of the publicity that will surround the anniversary of the movie; even if a 2016 release isn’t possible, it might be prudent to aim for early 2017, at least. While Trainspotting might seem aged to new viewers, for those of its generation it remains one of the classic films of that era – and fans would most definitely welcome a return to that story.
We’ll keep you posted on Trainspotting 2‘s development as more information is made available.
