Teyana Taylor “Begging” PTA To Make ‘One Battle After Another’ Follow-Up Allowing For Perfidia’s Return: “The Conversations Are Very, Very Real”

Ahead of the Oscars ceremony on March 15, “One Battle After Another” actress Teyana Taylor has revealed there are early conversations between herself and writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson about a potential follow-up or sequel to the Best Picture nominee.

The Best Supporting Actress nominated Taylor, revealed to IndieWire in a recent interview that she had been musing on ideas with Anderson about potentially seeing what her exiled character was up to over those 16 years alongside her estranged daughter, Willa Ferguson, at the end of the movie, whether she was rescuing Deandera (played by Regina Hall) or “finding her mommy.”

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I’m so focused on being present that I haven’t really taken a seat to really process and be like, ‘Oh, yeah, they want more of me.’ Here and there, I make little jokes with Paul. I’m like, ‘We need to see what Perfidia did in those 16 years.’ But Perfidia and Willa need some scenes together. When Willa walked out the door in that last scene, I said, ‘Where’s she really going? Is she going to free Deandra? Is she going to find her mommy?’ I love that it’s still hopeful, and it’s room for a little part two in there somewhere…The conversations are very, very real. I want to give everybody confirmation that I am currently begging PTA to give us that. I’m begging him to give us that.”

As you may remember from “One Battle After Another,” Taylor’s Perfidia has an unlikely affair with Sean Penn‘s Lockjaw (also nominated for an acting statue alongside co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro), and it leads her to rat on her revolutionary cohorts when a bank robbery goes south. Ultimately, she escapes the government’s clutches, hiding out in Mexico, and exits the film as her baby and Bob go on the run.

This early sequel talk isn’t entirely coming out of the blue, as PTA has talked/joked about this hypothetical idea before concerning returning to Chase Infiniti‘s Willa, which is very possible, from these new quotes, that may have stemmed from these conversations with Taylor.

That said, we really won’t know for sure if the wheels are truly in motion from talk to actual development until Anderson says it’s happening (he may only act as a producer), but we are feeling optimistic (possibly like Taylor), given the glowing reception the politically-charged film has received.

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“Sinners” and “One Battle After Another,” both Warner Bros. films, are going head-to-head for multiple awards and are seen as strong contenders to walk away with a good amount of Oscar statues, although it’s a competitive year, and we may see some upsets along the way.