WARNING: Spoilers for Free Guy.
With Disney-2oth Century’s Free Guy hitting theaters, here’s everything that’s known about a potential sequel in Free Guy 2, including release date, cast, and story. So far, Free Guy has gotten very solid, positive reviews, with critics saying the movie is far better than the marketing campaign suggests. Particular praise is being reserved for the film’s humor, but also its heart, anchored as it is by a stellar cast.
Free Guy takes place in the real world and inside a video game. In the video game series, Free City, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a cheerful, affable NPC with a mundane, routine life consisting of morning coffee, working at the bank as a teller, and hanging out with his best friend, Buddy (Lil Rel Howery). But when he walks past the fierce Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer) one day, it’s love at first sight and Guy suddenly begins to buck his programming and going rogue within the game.
Meanwhile, game programmer Millie (also Comer) and her former partner Keys (Joe Keery), a game developer whiz, are scrambling to figure out how to take down the corrupt CEO of game publisher Soonami, Antwan (Taika Waititi). Alternately helping or thwarting them is Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a fellow game developer who is torn between his loyalty to Keys and wanting to stay in Antwan’s good graces. When Antwan threatens to pull the plug on the game, it’s up to Guy to rally the other NPCs of Free City and save his world.
Despite its mostly strong reviews, the surging delta variant of Covid is still making box office hauls completely unpredictable and it’s impossible to know how Free Guy will ultimately do. Still, there’s a lot of franchise potential here. Here’s everything we know about Free Guy 2, including its release date, cast, and potential story.
Will Free Guy 2 Happen?
For those wondering, it does indeed appear that Free Guy 2 is a go. Free Guy is one of the rare modern big-budget tentpoles that is complete and entire, wrapping its story up in a satisfying conclusion, but there’s plenty of world, more than enough for a sequel. And, indeed, Ryan Reynolds has confirmed that a sequel is happening, saying in a tweet on opening weekend, “Aaaannnnd after 3 years messaging #FreeGuy as an original IP movie, Disney confirmed today they officially want a sequel. Woo hoo!! #irony.“
It’s not a surprise. Despite, as Reynolds said, marketing Free Guy as an original IP, Disney will literally never say no to a franchise opportunity. Free Guy is the last movie made by 20th Century Fox before the Disney-Fox merger, and one of the few Disney agreed to keep rather than scrap or sell, showing its promise. Prior to release, Disney may not have wanted to adopt another studio’s movie and make sequels as the House of Mouse’s M.O. has historically been to start from scratch with its own creative team. But with Free Guy‘s box office doing solid numbers, it was inevitable the studio would want a sequel.
Free Guy 2 Release Date
Again, as of this writing, there are no plans for a Free Guy sequel. However, should Disney choose to green light Free Guy 2, it likely wouldn’t hit theaters for a while due to a few factors. The first is that Free Guy won’t actually go to Disney+ after its theatrical window. Again, it was originally a 20th Century Fox film, and under the terms of Fox’s old deal with WarnerMedia, which runs through 2022, it will go to HBO Max first before Disney+. That means it’s likely to be some time before Disney gets a firm understanding of how successful Free Guy was. Secondly, Ryan Reynolds is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood right now and his schedule may not clear up for a while. Free Guy 2 likely wouldn’t be able to start filming until late next year, meaning it wouldn’t hit theaters until around Christmas 2023 at the earliest. A summer 2024 release date would be more realistic.
Free Guy 2 Cast
Free Guy had a relatively small main cast and it’s likely most of them would be returning. Naturally, Ryan Reynolds would anchor any sequel as Guy, and it can be expected that Jodie Comer’s Millie/Molotov Girl and Joe Keery’s Keys would be returning. As Guy’s best friend and fellow NPC, Lil Rel Howery would also likely return. Same with Utkarsh Ambudkar’s Mouser, who joins Millie and Keys in their new game development startup. The only big question mark regarding the original cast would be Taika Waititi. Not only is he crazy busy these days, but his villain was pretty thoroughly defeated by the end and it’s hard to see him making a comeback.
Free Guy 2 Story
Though its story was neatly tied up, Free Guy‘s premise and worldbuilding leave the door open for a potential sequel. Free Guy 2 would almost certainly involve Millie and Keys new startup, and it’s possible that the central conflict of the sequel has to do with that. For example, someone could hack their game or steal their code. Likewise, the blossoming romance that started at the end of Free Guy could continue to be explored, with the romance of the sequel this time taking place in the real world instead of the video game world. Of course, it’s likely that Guy will have to save his NPCs and residents of their new video game utopia once again, which could provide for a while new dynamic considering their new world has more anachronistic and fantasy elements to it. In reality, the story of Free Guy 2 could go almost anywhere.
