Imagining Movie Sequels with the ‘Now Playing Soon’ Podcast

Ever think about what a sequel would be like as soon as you finish watching a movie?

Maybe one is coming out or maybe there never will be a sequel. But sometimes, you have to wonder: what happened to the characters? Did things change? Did they ride off into the sunset or did their world collapse? What would the future hold in the the fictional world of that movie?

Nick Delehanty, Nathan Hulne, William Russo and Jim Smylie, hosts of Now Playing Soon, have been considering, imagining, and reviewing imaginary movie sequels for about a year now.

“We review movie sequels that don’t exist yet… or possibly ever,” said Delehanty. “Each episode starts with a quick and hopefully humorous recap of the original and then we improvise the sequel where we reveal the director, cast of characters, and explore where the story takes us. Nothing is written or planned out. We never do more than one take during recording.”

One film was the spark that started their podcast.

“In 2017, Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ was the only live-action film in the top 25 worldwide box office of 2017 to be original—not an adaptation, remake or sequel,” explained Delehanty. “We believe that every movie deserves a sequel. Now that I mention it, is there a Dunkirk sequel in the works? If not, there should be. That’s where we come in.”

They’ve been recording and releasing episodes for almost a year.

“We’ve released 39 episodes,” said Delehanty. “The four of us have been working together for nearly ten years. We’ve done improv, created a web series and an award-winning TV pilot, and now we make Now Playing Soon.”

The process of prepping to make their podcast is Delehanty’s favorite part.

“Before reviewing the sequel, we watch the original movie and live-tweet it. Usually there are gummy bears and popcorn involved,” said Delehanty.

And he said that the purpose of the podcast was to have fun and they’ve stuck to that purpose, what they do for and on the podcast isn’t far off from their leisure activities of choice before they started the podcast.

“Having fun and watching movies with my best friends is what made us want to do this podcast in the first place,” said Delehanty. “When we’d finish filming our other projects, we would just want to sit around and live-tweet action movies together. So we decided to follow our natural enthusiasm and make this podcast.”

The podcast has no end in sight. They will stick to their belief that every movie should have a sequel, according to Delehanty. He said that they will keep going until every movie has a sequel– or if they die or get tired before that happens.