'The Full Monty' Trailer: Comebacks Are Hard To Come By

Robert Carlyle is the champion of unexpected sequels. First was “T2 Trainspotting” in 2017, Danny Boyle’s follow-up to the 1996 British classic. And now there’s “The Full Monty,” an eight-episode series sequel that picks up 25 years later with the original film’s cast. The first trailer shows how the city of Sheffield has fared — and why things may not have gotten any easier for our ragtag group of working-class protagonists.

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If it’s been a minute since you’ve seen the film, here is a quick refresher: “The Full Monty” follows a group of middle-aged men who turn to stripping after the local steel mill shuts down and puts most of the community out of work. That film starred Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson, and Mark Addy — better known as Robert Baratheon in the “Game of Thrones” series — and offered audiences a gentle exploration of ’90s intersectional politics (including race, class, and gender). The movie was so popular that it spawned a Broadway musical featuring a young Patrick Wilson in the leading role.

Of course, with so many properties getting sequels, one might rightly ask whether we need another version of “The Full Monty.” However, even if you’re typically pretty bearish on sequels, this feels like a property that might be the exception to the rule. The original movie did not solve any major problems in the lives of its characters; what started as a get-rich scheme quickly became a safe space for an odd group of friends. Meanwhile, many of the issues captured in the original film — affordability, masculinity, and the plight of the working class — are sadly no less relevant in 2023 than in 1997.

Plus, the same trio of actors — Carlyle, Wilkinson, and Addy — that helped make the original film a success are hardly the kind of celebrity forces that would turn this into a vanity project. If “The Full Monty” exists to tell stories about growing older in an unkind world, then the stakes are probably just right for it to find a willing and engaged audience — unless, of course, it chooses to go full-on “Magic Mike” instead.

“The Full Monty will be available to stream on Hulu starting June 14.