Working Title Films/Gramercy Pictures
When it comes to career-defining roles, there are few as ubiquitous as Jeff Bridges and The Dude from the 1998 stoner comedy classic The Big Lebowski.
Given that the role is so iconic, you’d think that Bridges would want to leave the part untouched so its legacy remains intact.
However, during a recent interview, the 73-year-old Academy Award winner said he’d be game for a sequel if the Cohen Brothers, the directors of the original film, returned for the projects.
“Oh God! If the brothers were involved, I certainly would,” Bridges recently told People.
“The brothers, they’re mysterious and full of surprises. You don’t know what they’re going to do, so since they’re surprising, I don’t think they’ll make a sequel. But like I say, they’re surprising, so maybe they’ll surprise me and make a sequel.”
Unfortunately for Bridges, the Cohen brothers, although amicably, have gone their separate ways in recent years, with Joel Cohen recently directing The Tragedy of Macbeth on his own, which marked the first time a Coen brother has directed a feature film without the other.
Similarly, Ethan Cohen is directing the upcoming comedy Drive-Away Dolls, which stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, Bill Camp, and Matt Damon, and will hit theaters in September.
If a sequel to The Big Lebowski did ever happen, it wouldn’t be the first follow-up film, as John Turturro directed the widely-panned spin-off The Jesus Roles, which focused on his character Jesus Quintana and hit theaters back in 2019.
In the quarter-century since its release, The Big Lebowski has gone on to become one of the defining films of the 1990s and one of the most beloved comedies of its generation. Alongside Bridges as The Dude and Turturro as Jesus Quintana, The Big Lebowski starred Sam Elliott, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemim, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Thewlis, Peter Stormare, and more.