Jason Reitman Killed One Of The Greatest Sequel Ideas Ever

By Andrew Sanford | Film | May 17, 2023 |

By Andrew Sanford | Film | May 17, 2023 |

I like Jason Reitman. I saw his first film, Thank You For Smoking, in high school and loved it. Since then, if I’ve seen a movie of his (though, admittedly, I haven’t seen them all), I’ve enjoyed it. It’s no secret on this site that I love Ghostbusters, and I happily watched him take the reins from his father on Ghostbusters: Afterlife. However, there is another long-awaited sequel to an Ivan Reitman film that, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason killed. That movie is Twins.

I love Twins, and like many movies from my youth, I’d be hard-pressed to be objective about it. It is weird and funny and rides a fantastic premise. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito play long-lost twin brothers, and hilarity ensues. Again, I don’t know if it’s good, but I love it. It is hard to improve on a premise like that, but dammit, that’s precisely what happened.

In 2012, Universal announced they would make a sequel to Twins called Triplets. The idea was that our titular twins had another long-lost brother. Who was the actor chosen to play that brother? Eddie Murphy. That is some A+ casting that excited me greatly, and this was almost a decade before my wife would give birth to two beautiful twin boys of very different skin colors. Murphy was now post-Tower Heist. It seemed like he had emerged from family-friendly perdition and was making comedies again!

The sequel languished in development hell for ten years. Then, in 2021, it was announced that the movie would be moving forward. Murphy was no longer attached to star, but Tracy Morgan had taken his place! That’s not a bad trade! Plus, Ivan Reitman was attached to direct. It seemed like Triplets would finally happen. Unfortunately (for more reasons than just the cancellation of a movie), Ivan Reitman passed away in February 2022.

Until now, the status of Triplets, like the George Clooney-starring Jason Reitman film, remained Up In The Air. That is until Schwarzenegger sat down with The Hollywood Reporter. He was asked about the sequel to his 1988 hit. This is what he had to say.

“Jason Reitman f***ed it up! Jason Reitman literally stopped the project when his father died. His father wanted to do it really badly. I wanted to do it really badly. Danny DeVito wanted to do it really badly. We had the financing. When his father passed away, Jason says, “I never liked the idea” and put a hold on it. I’m developing another movie with Danny; he’s so much fun to work with and so talented.”

Do I know for certain that Triplets would have been good? No. But, dammit, the idea is so sound that it at least deserves a chance! Everyone seemed to be on board. Getting a big studio comedy into theaters is a big ask these days, but surely Triplets would have stood a chance! Instead, we’ll get inundated with Ghostbusters movies and tv shows. Even a big ole Ghosthead(?) like me doesn’t think that trade-off is worth it.