Joel Edgerton on Bright’s critical thrashing & what he wants from the sequel

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It's probably safe to say that David Ayer's BRIGHT was hardly a critical darling, but personally, I found plenty to like about the Netflix film and am willing to keep an open mind for the already announced sequel. Joel Edgerton, who played Will Smith's orc partner Jakoby in the film, recently spoke with Collider about the critical reaction to BRIGHT, which he believes got "extra critical hate" due to the movie making its debut on Netflix.

It’s almost the inverse of Star Wars [The Last Jedi]. You’ve got critics at 93 or 92%, and the audience gave it a 50-something, and you get to Bright, which is sort of slammed by critics, but it has a 90% audience score. I think there was a little bit of extra critical hate towards it because it’s changing the landscape of the movie business, but I think Bright is maybe a movie that needs to be reviewed by public opinion rather than viewed through the highbrow prism of film criticism.

Despite the reviews, it's clear that BRIGHT was a big success for Netflix, who got the ball rolling on the sequel even before the release of the film. Joel Edgerton also spoke of what he hopes that sequel will bring, which could involve more exploration of the world, possibly even venturing outside of L.A. "The world is very interesting, and I think there’s a certain depth and detail to that world that’s really wonderful… I don’t know exactly where they’re going to take it. I got the sense from David that he might take it to a new setting, which I think would be cool to see. I personally was most curious of what was happening outside of Los Angeles, and obviously the world at large is populated by similar characters and how does that affect other cities? I think it’d be awesome to have a look at that. It’s interesting," Edgerton said. "Where do Daryl and Nick go now that they’ve had that experience. Is Jacoby now suddenly more accepted because he went through that experience, or is he going to go back to work on Monday and have people mistreat him?"

The actor added that beyond more exploration of the world, he had a very simple reason for signing up for more: "I had a good time with the people; I had a tough time in the prosthetics for sure, but I loved playing the character. Between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, it was one of the most exciting characters I ever got to play just because of the complete freedom. I love improvising, it was my version of like playing Chunk in Goonies or Shrek or something—the big, kicked-to-the-curb, ugly, misunderstood, monster character."

BRIGHT is available on Netflix, but Joel Edgerton will next be seen in RED SPARROW on March 2nd.