The idea of a Wet Hot American Summer reunion is certainly nothing new. As recently as April, when we spoke to director David Wain and stars Joe Lo Truglio and Ken Marino around the film’s tenth anniversary, Lo Truglio acknowledged, ”Every now and then that comes up—how we could do some type of sequel or prequel.” But he was also quick to qualify that statement, saying, “But when you have Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper and Amy [Poehler] and all these movie stars and gigantic people in it, it’s like… If everyone made their quote, it would be like a $30-$40 million movie. But who knows—one could always dream, I suppose.” And so one has continued to dream, and sometimes they progress to telling Wain about that dream in an interview, like the one Wain had recently on “The Q&A With Jeff Goldsmith” podcast, where he once again gave hope to all those waiting for the cult comedy to get another chapter.
And this time, Wain stoked anticipation even higher by saying they were in the “early stages of thinking about [a prequel,” one that would take place in “the same summer… so it would be 40 year olds playing 16 year olds.” Of course, thinking is not the same as doing—and pretty far removed from selling—and they’ve been in the “early stages of thinking” of this exact same idea since at least 2008. And in addition to having to work around getting the now-much-more-expensive cast back together, there are other hurdles. Chief among them is the fact that Universal is so over Wet Hot, it’s not even into the idea of doing a “new prequel teaser short,” new interviews, or any new material at all for a prospective 10th anniversary Blu-ray because, in Wain’s words, the studio believes “nobody buys it. Nobody cares.” (It tastes like a burger, and they don’t like it anymore.) So definitely don’t count on a follow-up—but definitely feel free to keep asking David Wain about it every time you see him.