Jennifer Yuh Nelson has revealed her hopes that a sequel to The Darkest Minds will eventually be made, insisting that she wants to explore the characters further and work with the young actors again.
I recently had the chance to speak to Nelson, who made her live-action feature film debut with the adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s 2012 young adult novel “The Darkest Minds,” which is the first of the five book series.
During our conversation I asked Nelson if she harbored any ambition to make the follow-ups, and she was quick to lay out the reasons why she would jump at the chance to do so.
“The characters are so good. I also love how much the actors got out of being on set together. And how they really made good friends together. I would really love to see them get back together again.”
But while Nelson is obviously interested, the director insisted that “The Darkest Mind” wasn’t made with a follow-up in mind.
“There are quite a few more books in the series. But it is one of those things where … I have worked on franchises before and never ever in all of that time have I said, ‘We are gonna hold off on all of that stuff because we are gonna save it for the next movie.’”
“You never pull your punches like that. You make the best movie you can make in that movie that you are making right now. You never assume anything. You really make one movie at a time.”
Unfortunately, despite the popularity of the books, “The Darkest Minds” has underperformed at the box office, grossing just $21.8 million from its $34 million budget, while it also only scored 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, too.
Which means that, at this point, a follow-up looks very, very unlikely.
