Today is one of those days where you begin to feel old. That’s because 10 years ago, to the day, Adam McKay’s masterpiece “Step Brothers” was released. The film, which starred the incomparable Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, was a moderate hit when it was released in theaters but has gone on to be a classic comedy that gets played on cable TV almost constantly. And in honor of the film’s 10th anniversary, McKay sat down with Variety for a new interview to talk about one of his greatest works.
While he goes over his favorite scene, how the film came together, and everything in between, the end of the interview provides some great insight into the question he gets asked most, “Will there be a sequel?”
He gives his stock answer, but does explain why he’s hesitant about ever going back to the world of Dale and Brennan:
“In the case of ‘Anchorman,’ those characters can age, and the news business has changed and become so many different things, it naturally lent itself to a sequel… With ‘Step Brothers,’ it’s tricky. We have a couple ideas that we liked through the years. The world is so topsy turvy right now that it would really be some idea where you jump out of your chair to do this. I don’t know, I have definitely learned to never say never.”
However, a concept that he might be interested in exploring, or at least pontificating about is the idea of rebooting “Step Brothers” in 2018. McKay admits that the film is such a product of its time, with pop culture references for days, and he says any sort of 2018 version would have to reflect the current times, as well:
“The dilemma at the center of the movie is, ‘Why do I want to grow up when adults look this way?’ [laughs] They look a lot worse right now. It wasn’t great back then either, but the world that Dale and Brennan would be stepping into would be more tumultuous and frightening. You’d have the same structure, but it would be hard not to mention Trump. All the stuff that’s going on would have to be an element in it. The second act you’d have Dale and Brennan as big Trump supporters and go hard core right wing…I can’t imagine we wouldn’t have jokes about the insanity that’s going on right now with the political system. That would have to pop up in at least one of them. Dale or Brennan being a die hard ‘Make America Great Again’ guy would be too hard to resist.”
McKay then concedes that perhaps the way to go forward with a potential “Step Brothers” sequel is to just reboot the whole damn thing with a Trump twist. However, he worries that maybe now’s not the right time to make fun of the current political situation:
“That’s actually not a bad idea. It’s a clever way to do a sequel. Just do a remake, but let the times wash over it. Can you do a comedy about this time? At one point, I’ve got to try. Is there a way to laugh at this? We will see. The whole comedy world is reorienting itself right now, trying to figure out how to deal with this insanity that we’re living in.”
While it appears that McKay has no plans to go back to the Dale and Brennan, Prestige Worldwide well, we always have the original film to keep us laughing. And if you want to celebrate the anniversary, The Ringer put out a great piece on the film, detailing the creation, reception, and legacy of one of the best comedies of the 21st century.