Exclusive: Will Smith In Talks For Hitch 2
Will Smith is in negotiations to star in Hitch 2, a sequel to his 2005 rom-com.
Will Smith may soon star in a sequel to his 2005 romantic comedy Hitch, in which the I Am Legend star played a dating coach who finds himself falling in love with an unlikely partner. According to our trusted and proven sources, Will Smith may include Hitch 2 in his slate of potential sequels, which includes a fourth Bad Boys movie and at one point, a sequel to his much-maligned but massively popular action fantasy Bright. While Will Smith has been one of the most successful leading men in Hollywood history, he is at a very odd point in his career and a light movie like Hitch 2 could potentially be vital to his ongoing box office appeal.
The first Hitch movie was the sole screenwriting credit for Kevin Bisch and was directed by Andy Tennant, also known for the Drew Barrymore revisionist fairy tale Ever After: A Cinderella Story and Reese Witherspoon’s romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. It is unclear whether Will Smith would be joined by either of them for a potential Hitch 2, though the involvement of neither probably would not shut it down (as usual, Smith served as producer on the film). After all, Will Smith is all you really need for Alex “Hitch” Hitchens to return in Hitch 2.
In 2005, Will Smith was riding high on not particularly well-regarded but extremely popular films like the Isaac Asimov-pastiche I, Robot, the underwater DreamWorks animated film Shark Tale, and his first attempt to foist his children on the public with The Pursuit of Happyness. That Will Smith is at least open to the possibility of Hitch 2, a sequel to a commercially successful but little-remembered light comedy, indicates that the star is looking to reaffirm his image as a charming movie star with the public.
Of course, Will Smith may need a Hitch 2 in the still-ongoing fallout from his notorious public slapping of comedian Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards. The incident (which occurred after Rock told a joke at the expense of Smith’s spouse Jada Pinkett Smith) resulted in the Wild Wild West star resigning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and being banned from its events for the next 10 years. Arguably, even more disastrously, Will Smith’s carefully maintained public image was shifted in the public eye and his Best Actor win for King Richard was completely overshadowed.
Since then, Will Smith has alternated between staying out of the public eye and doing damage control for the incident, with many pundits being uncertain whether his career as a movie star would be able to be recovered. His Apple TV+ drama Emancipation was released to mixed reviews, with Smith seeming to find it necessary to ask people to essentially excuse the rest of the cast and crew from his involvement. At this point, it makes sense that Will Smith would go for a relatively safe project like Hitch 2 in order to win back some goodwill. Now we’ll just have to see if Kevin James is willing.
