"Sequels are never guaranteed. They have to be earned."
Director Adam Wingard's DEATH NOTE hit Netflix this past Friday and like many of you out there I had the opportunity to check it out last night.
Not being a fan of the source material – meaning I am not familiar with it at all – I found the flick to be like a 100 min. trailer for a potentially cool series. Polished as hell, but empty in the end.
Too much and not enough is another way to describe it.
Anyhow, it looks like Wingard and Netflix have plans for a DEATH NOTE 2 and even a DEATH NOTE 3 if this first film gets stellar reviews (or, you know, gets watched by a bunch of people).
Wingard on DEATH NOTE 2:
At the end of the day, there are a lot of places to explore where to take Light. And ultimately the series is sort of about almost his downfall as a character. This is sort of the beginning of it or the origin of it. There are definitely lots of places to go, and we know generally where we would take it. Hopefully, people will watch it and Netflix will order a sequel. They definitely are ready to. They just need people to watch it.
Wingard continues:
We kept it open as a sequel. When I went to Netflix initially, I pitched it as at least a two-film series, maybe three, knowing this was the origin story. We definitely designed the film so it plays a closed loop. Sequels are never guaranteed. They have to be earned. On some level, I really love that the movie ends with all the characters damaged. It's such an unconventional ending for any kind of comic book film, and I really like that.
I'd be down for more DEATH NOTE if only because Ryuk and L were cool as hell and the movie feels like it has a much bigger and better story to tell. I'd watch all three flicks actually. But I also dig the hell out of Wingard's 80's soundtrack.
DEATH NOTE is streaming now on Netflix.