The movie Jon Favreau knew he’d never be allowed to make: “We’re not going to shoot it”
From playing Monica’s boyfriend in Friends to launching the biggest franchise in movie history, Jon Favreau has come a very long way.
As Disney’s go-to man for handling their biggest IPs – Marvel, Star Wars, etc, he’s been responsible for some of the most significant cultural moments of the last two decades. He’s also worth probably double what his Friends character was, too.
Like everyone, you can trace Favreau’s rise to power back to a single movie. In his case, it was Swingers. A comedy about the carefree lives of out-of-work actors in Los Angeles, Favreau didn’t direct the film, but he did write it and star in it alongside Vince Vaughn. The movie made stars out of most of the cast and the director, Doug Liman. It is regarded by many as one of the funniest films ever made and is still being talked about with great reverence over 25 years later.
Given the success of Swingers, it’s surprising we never saw a sequel. Well, according to Favreau, that’s nearly what happened. Speaking to The Movie Report about his early career, the writer-director revealed that he wanted to know what happened to these characters before the world had even met them.
“I actually even wrote a sequel to Swingers while we were in the editing room,” he recalled. “We’re not going to shoot it. It might be interesting to see the script of it, though… Something to tag on to something else. I wouldn’t want to sell it.”
The man behind The Mandalorian toyed with the idea of the script being released on its own, but admitted he wrote it without ever once thinking it would actually be made. As it stands, the screenplay has yet to see the light of day, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating.
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know that it ends with the two lead characters, Mike (Favreau) and Trent (Vaughn), at the start of very different journeys, and while Mike has recently come to terms with the end of a long-term relationship and is excited to start a new romance with Lorraine (Heather Graham), Trent continues to embarrass himself chasing women and refusing to settle down.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this, considering what they’ve done to the industry as a whole, but I actually think a legacy sequel to Swingers wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Picking up Mike and Trent’s stories a few months or even a few years down the line doesn’t seem that interesting to me.
The real intrigue comes from revisiting their lives after several decades. Mike could have hit the big time and could even be in a similar position to Favreau’s real-life status. As for Trent, he could be in his 50s, still living life like he’s in his 20s. That would be the main source of conflict, as the two men vainly attempt to recapture their so-called ‘glory days’.
With Favreau one of the busiest men on planet Earth right now, it’s unlikely that Swingers 2 will ever happen. If he ever wants to get back to his roots, though, there’d be plenty of people very excited to go with him.
