Netflix Has Already Ordered a Bright Sequel, for Some Reason

Because the world is cruel and merciless, David Ayer’s fantasy urban cop film Bright will get a sequel. Per Bloomberg, Netflix has already committed to a follow-up, with star Will Smith returning. Bright releases on the streaming platform on Dec. 22, and reviewers are not taking kindly to it so far.

Sporting a 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, early reviews have given credit to the original premise by Ayer and screenwriter Max Landis, while also labeling the film tedious, generic and “cringeworthy,” with IndieWire in particular calling it “the worst movie of 2017.” Reviewer David Ehrlich called it “so profoundly awful that Republicans will probably try to pass it into law over Christmas break.” To his credit, Ayer responded to Ehrlich’s savaging in just about the classiest way possible:

this kind of decency takes a lot of backbone (and he’s 100% right that a strong reaction is better than none at all).

also, i love how david ayer of all people feels the need to self-censor his language on twitter. pic.twitter.com/OrZuQjHtE9

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) December 21, 2017

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Expanding the fantasy realism world of Bright is undoubtedly part of Netflix’s plan to have at least half of their content be original, and the world of Bright is seemingly deep enough to explore further. Still, the film, from one bizarre trailer to another, looks to represent the worse of Ayer’s obsession of cops and flashy gangsters (particularly those of color), just under the veil of high-fantasy creatures like orcs, elves and fairies. We have serious doubts that Ayer is the one to bring us a successful race relations allegory, based on his previous work.

As mentioned, Bright will begin streaming on Netflix this Friday, Dec. 22—you’ll be able to see how it is for yourself.