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And Finally Artist News
Brian May rules out Bohemian Rhapsody sequel
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 7 May 2020
Brian May has ruled out a sequel to Queen biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, despite the film’s massive success.
Released in 2018, after many years in development spent burning through directors and lead actors, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ proved a massive financial success and won many awards. This despite, at least in a technical sense, the film not being very good at all. Many also criticised the way the film treated Mercury’s sexuality and HIV diagnosis, as well as the generally lax historical accuracy – despite May and drummer Roger Taylor being directly involved with the production.
If a sequel were to be made, it had been suggested that there are other areas of the band’s career missed out in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ upon which a story could be built. Or, if it followed on chronologically, it would have to focus on Mercury’s HIV diagnosis and death.
“I don’t think that would be an uplifting thing to do”, says May of the latter option, speaking to Rolling Stone. “I’m not saying it’s impossible because there is a great story there, but we don’t feel that’s the story we want to tell at the moment”.
As for picking something else from earlier in their career, he says: “There’s a million things in our career which you couldn’t show [in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’] since the movie had to be so simplified to make it watchable. But we don’t really think there’s another movie there. That’s the long and the short of it. I think we should look somewhere else. There are other ideas that we had, but I don’t think a sequel will happen. But we have looked at it pretty seriously”.
“Things could change, I suppose”, he adds, “but I think it would be difficult”.
Last week, May, Taylor and current Queen vocalist Adam Lambert released a version of ‘We Are The Champions’, recorded remotely in lockdown. The new version, featuring tweaked lyrics, pays tribute to healthcare workers, with income from the track being donated to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Watch the video here:
