Ma director Tate Taylor reveals his idea for a sequel to the 2019 horror film. Ma starred Octavia Spencer as the titular character Sue Ann "Ma" Ellington, a veterinarian approached by a group of teens to buy them alcohol. Ma invites them to drink at her house and begins insinuating herself into their lives in increasingly disturbing ways. The torment Ma enacts on the kids becomes entwined with her own humiliation at the hands of their parents, and her revenge takes dark and deadly forms.
The campy Ma received mixed critical reviews but became something of a cultural phenomenon upon its release. The film spawned many Ma memes, which included parodies of the line "Don’t make me drink alone," as well as photoshops of Spencer and her iconic bowl cut into other film posters (RoMA, Call MA By Your Name, First MA, etc). The latter reached such heights of Internet fame that Spencer ran her own Ma meme contest, featuring her favorites on her Instagram page.
Now, director Tate Taylor is considering how to transform Ma’s cult status into a sequel. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Taylor expressed delight at Ma’s success and shared his idea for a follow-up film. He told the outlet: "My idea is that she's moved to another town, and she has open houses in another city and kills people in the open house. I think she'd be a real estate agent in the Pacific Northwest, and just murder white people looking at McMansions. That's as far as I've gotten!"
Taylor, who is a longtime friend of Spencer’s, reassured fans that the Oscar winner would be down to reprise her role as Ma. He even said that he had "purposely left her death ambiguous" in order to leave the door open for the character’s future. At the end of the original Ma, the last time viewers see Spencer's character, she’s crawling into bed with her dead high school crush as the house burns down around them.
Part of Ma’s surprising charm was that it was a totally original standalone film, something of a rarity in the currently franchise-dominated industry. Horror is no exception to this trend, with new series like Happy Death Day and A Quiet Place, or recurring staples like Scream, all getting sequels. Spencer is also a busy actress usually juggling plenty of high-profile projects, so a Ma sequel might not be high on her list of priorities.
That being said, the Ma meme contest shows that Spencer enjoyed the reception of the film just as much as Taylor did, and because the pair are already friends, it’s easier to see her agreeing to sign on for a sequel. Considering the director has his wheels turning for new scenarios in which Spencer could terrify her victims, fans may very well be seeing more of Ma in the future.
Source: Entertainment Weekly