Last Updated: April 29, 2020
Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, and director David Ayer will be re-teaming for Netflix's Bright 2, the forthcoming sequel to 2017's Bright. Bright introduced audiences to an alternate present day where humans lived and worked alongside magical creatures like orcs, elves, and fairies, exploring how these different races have come to co-exist in a world where magic is commonplace.
Bright was met with plenty of negativity from critics when it debuted on Netflix in December 2017. Reviews pointed out the film shied away from dealing with the implications of racism and unsavory social stratification that came with magical creatures living with humans while also failing to present any new or interesting ideas about the magical lore it was introducing. Despite the critical trepidation, it was reported Bright received over 11 million views during its first three days on Netflix, acting as a show of support for the film's stars, Smith and Edgerton, as well as the story being told.
Netflix officially announced a Bright sequel was happening in January 2018 with the release of a tongue-in-cheeky announcement video featuring two unnamed orcs auditioning to be in the sequel. With production on Bright 2 still yet to begin, let's take a look at every aspect of the sequel that has been confirmed, including the release date, who is returning, who is directing, and what the sequel's story will be.
Bright 2 Release Date
Bright 2 was originally slated to begin filming in spring 2019, but that timeline was delayed to accommodate a revised production schedule for fellow Will Smith-fronted sequel Bad Boys for Life, after that film itself was delayed. In September 2019, Smith's Bright co-star Lucy Fry revealed that as far as she knew, production on the sequel had been pushed back indefinitely due to Smith's other commitments. In January 2020, director David Ayer confirmed that Bright 2 was still in the works, and that he hoped to get things moving. Of course, March saw Hollywood shutdown due to Coronavirus, so right now it's entirely unclear when Bright 2 will begin filming, much less release.
Will Smith & Joel Edgerton Are Returning For Bright 2
When Netflix ordered Bright 2, it was also reported that Smith and Edgerton would return. Before the Bright 2 leads could begin filming, however, they had some other big projects to complete. At the time Bright 2 was confirmed, Smith had a busy schedule: between December 2017 and June 2019, he has completed filming on and/or promotional duties related to Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin, the animated film Spies in Disguise, Gemini Man, and Bad Boys 3. As for Edgerton, that time period included filming and/or promoting Red Sparrow, Gringo, Boy Erased, and The King.
Related: Every Upcoming Will Smith Movie
Bright 2 Story Details
Bright's story begins on the day seasoned LAPD officer Daryl Ward (Smith) is paired with the division's first orc recruit, Nick Jakoby (Edgerton) and is tasked with training him — much to his chagrin. Things go from standard to intense really quickly when they respond to a disturbance at a safe house for a magical extremist group known as the Shield of Light, putting them in the middle of a battle with the Inferni, who are attempting to bring about the return of the Dark Lord. Over the course of the night, Ward and Jakoby must protect an elf named Tikka (Lucy Fry) while also fending off the magical gangs who want the powerful wand for themselves. In the end, Ward and Jakoby stop the Dark Lord, hide the wand's whereabouts and earn official commendations for their bravery and remain partners while Tikka slips off.
Bright 2's story is expected to pick up where Bright left off while also going deeper into the magic and lore introduced in the first film. No official plot details have been confirmed but Edgerton did tease the plot in broad strokes in a Yahoo interview in February 2019:
"All I can probably assume is that most sequels go a little bit bigger the second time around so I think we’re going to tune the dial up to eleven. There may be a slightly more international flavor about Bright 2, we might go outside the boundaries of Downton Los Angeles."
It has been hinted in past reports filming would happen in Germany but no solid leads on filming locations, in the U.S. or otherwise, have been confirmed yet.
David Ayer Is Directing Bright 2
Director David Ayer will return to direct Bright 2. Ayer will also share writing duties with Beauty and the Beast scribe Evan Spiliotopoulos. Ayer and Spiliotopoulos are taking over as writers on the film after Bright screenwriter Max Landis was not re-hired for the sequel for reasons which have become more obvious as time has gone on, despite no official reason ever being given from Netflix or Landis.
Since wrapping on Bright, Ayer has spent his time working on The Tax Collector, which involves him re-teaming with Fury actor Shia LaBeouf to tell the story of a Los Angeles tax collector in the city's ganglands whose livelihood and family is put in danger when an old threat returns to town. Ayer has also been hard at work executive producing and filming the pilot for the upcoming Fox crime drama Deputy, starring Stephen Dorff as Bill Hollister, who works in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department and is promoted to the interim sheriff for the city when his superior is killed in the line of duty.
There Isn't A Bright 2 Trailer Yet
A trailer for Bright 2 has yet to be released, since filming has yet to begin. The streaming giant is notorious for releasing trailers for upcoming original content approximately one month out from a scheduled premiere date (a decidedly different approach to a theatrically-released film), although as a major release, they could eschew this for Bright 2. Still, fans should've expect footage anytime soon, even after production gets going proper.