Queen's Brian May is "looking at" a Bohemian Rhapsody sequel

If you’re among the Bohemian Rhapsody defenders who actually think the Queen biopic was worthy of its four Oscars, there’s some good news for you: The band’s guitarist, Brian May, is back to thinking that Rami Malek could have another shot at playing Freddie Mercury, if the right screenplay comes along.

While on Instagram Live over the weekend, May was asked about making another movie about the band and replied, “We are looking at it. Yeah, we have been looking at ideas.” He adds, “We put a lot of heart and soul into making [Bohemian Rhapsody] and no one could have predicted [its success] as it was bigger than Gone With The Wind. But yes, we are thinking maybe it could happen, but it would have to be a great script. It’s going to take a while to figure that out.”

Bigger than Gone With The Wind is quite a stretch, but he’s right that for a whole year upon its release in 2018, people couldn’t stop talking about the musical biopic—but not all that attention was positive. Many Queen fans weren’t happy that the film glossed over Freddie Mercury’s queerness, focusing more on his relationship with Mary Austin—who remained one of his closest friends until his death. The film also stopped Mercury’s story with the band’s legendary Live Aid performance, leaving the last six years of the singer’s life out of the picture. We didn’t get to see Mercury’s last years battling AIDS, and we barely got to see him with his long-term partner Jim Hutton, who was given limited screen time. Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t even bother to get how Hutton and Mercury met right.

But then again, that’s what makes Bohemian Rhapsody a solid contender to get a follow-up. Mercury deserves a watchable biopic written by a queer screenwriter who understands his story—and a film that doesn’t have Bryan Singer’s name attached to it.

[NME]