Held in high regard by many film fans, Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy of films is known not just for its intimate story between a man and a woman, with a relationship that spans almost two decades, but also for its timeliness. Like clockwork, every nine years, a new ‘Before’ film was released, beginning in 1995. However, though it doesn’t appear that a fourth film will be released in 2022 (nine years after 2013’s “Before Midnight”), one of the film’s stars is actually interested in pursuing a new entry in the relationship saga.
Speaking to the New York Times, during an oral history of the ‘Before’ trilogy,’ star Ethan Hawke talked about an idea he has for revisiting his and Julie Delpy’s characters from the three films in a new “epilogue” that could be set years after “Before Midnight.”
“There was a feeling I had in my gut when we finished ‘Before Midnight’ that I’d never had before, which was that we were done,” Hawke explained. “‘Sunrise,’ ‘Sunset,’ ‘Midnight’ is one work in its own strange way. That doesn’t mean there won’t be another work, like an epilogue. I would be curious about an ‘After’ series, about something where you really deal with the second half of your life.”
And though there will likely be some fans that cringe at the idea of another ‘Before’ film or an entire ‘After’ series of films to tackle the “second half of your life,” it appears that Linklater isn’t so opposed. In fact, he has a bit of a silly take on what the film could be about.
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The filmmaker said, “Maybe we’ll wait until they’re in their 80s and do a comic remake of ‘Amour,’ where one euthanizes the other in old age. I’m not ruling that out.”
Regardless of fan opinion, there definitely wouldn’t be much difficulty finding a way to make an epilogue film or series to the ‘Before’ trilogy. Linklater has only gotten more popular over the years, as have Hawke and Delpy. So, if they want it to happen, then it probably could happen. We’ll just have to wait and see.