In an article that came out today, the head of Amazon Studios said that there might be a sequel to The Idea of You. While I loved the movie (check out my review here), I am vehemently against the idea. The movie told a complete story and does not need a sequel that I can see. Right now, any sequel would just seem to be a money grab, which generally end up being bad movies. You may ask why I am against a sequel here and for a sequel to Red, White, and Royal Blue, and that would be a valid question. I want to explain why I think the two are fundamentally different when it comes to sequel possibilities.
First off, as I said The Idea of You told a complete story. The story was about an older woman getting into a relationship with a younger man and the sexism and ageism involved when their relationship went public. They split and got together in the end. If they did a sequel, what would the story be? Would we rehash the same sexism and ageism? I don't see a good story that maintains the quality of the first movie. Sure, they might get married or something, but would that story be worthy of the first movie? I am not really seeing how. Also, you'd have to get over Solene's probable issues about getting married given how Daniel treated her.
As for RWRB, the way the story was told made it clear that more could come. First off, while it did tell the story of how Henry and Alex became a couple, it wasn't complete in the same way The Idea of You was. The ending was an end to a part of their story, not their complete story. Also, Casey has written more about their life after the book ended, so there is obviously more to tell there. The Idea of You, on the other hand, doesn't have a sequel and; having read the book and seen the movie; I don't see the story continuing. The ending to both (as I said above) was more definitive and felt like a period, not a comma or semicolon. There's also the fact that Casey is directly involved in writing the second movie and, given how protective she is of RWRB, I feel more secure knowing that (talked about it here).
Basically, I don't like the ideas of sequels being written unless the sequel can add to the first movie. This is different from movies where there are "sequels" that really have nothing to do with the original (the Cinderella Story movies spring to mind here), which are a whole other issue I won't deal with here. A sequel should organically continue the story that the first started. There should be some thread from the first movie that makes the sequel work. And in The Idea of You (as I said above) there is no such thread. Everything was wrapped up nice and neat and tidy. When a movie has to retcon a change or in some other way artificially produce a sequel, it inevitably is worse than the original and drags the original down with it. And that is something that I absolutely *DO NOT* want to happen to The Idea of You, it means entirely too much to me.
If the writers can somehow come up with a story that actually makes sense, I might watch the movie if it has Anne and Nick. But if it ends up being some sort of "sequel" (a la the Cinderella Story franchise) or if it ends up being a forced story, I won't watch and will pretend it doesn't exist.
I am begging Amazon to please not just make sequels to make sequels. Don't cheapen a deeply meaningful and beautiful movie as part of a cash grab. I know they are a company and motivated by money, but making a sequel to The Idea of You would be a massive mistake.
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