Queen star discusses possible ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ sequel
Brian May has been chatting about the possibility of a sequel to Bohemian Rhapsody.
The original movie was released in 2018, winning a Best Actor Oscar for Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury.
Bohemian Rhapsody chronicled British rock band Queen from 1970, when Mercury teamed with Brian May and Roger Taylor, until the band’s performance at Live Aid in 1985, six years before the singer died of complications from AIDS.
The cast included Gwilym Lee (Midsomer Murders) as Brian May, alongside Ben Hardy (The Woman in White) as drummer Roger Taylor, Joe Mazzello (Jurassic Park) as bass guitarist John “Deacy” Deacon, and Downton Abbey star Allen Leech as Mercury’s personal manager, Paul Prenter.
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The film made over $900 million, so it was inevitable that there would be talk of a follow-up!
Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine, Brian May recently gave this update: “There’s a million things in our career which you couldn’t show in a movie since the movie had to be so simplified to make it watchable.
“But we don’t really think there’s another movie there. That’s the long and the short of it. I think we should look somewhere else. There are other ideas that we had, but I don’t think a sequel will happen.
“But we have looked at it pretty seriously.”
A sequel to Bohemian Rhapsody could potentially explore Freddie Mercury’s battle with HIV/AIDS during his final years; an area that was glossed over very quickly in the first movie.
However, Brian May doesn’t think audiences would want to see this.
The Queen guitarist said: “I don’t think that would be an uplifting thing to do. I’m not saying it’s impossible because there is a great story there, but we don’t feel that’s the story we want to tell at the moment.”
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Bohemian Rhapsody is available on DVD on Amazon.