“It’s Gotten So Corporate”- Melissa McCarthy Calls Out Industry Changes Holding Back ‘Bridesmaids 2'

Published 09/21/2026, 12:29 PM EDT

via Imago

Bridesmaids arrived in 2011, threw dignity out the window, and somehow made everyone fall hopelessly in love. The Melissa McCarthy comedy grossed over $306 million worldwide, earned two Academy Award nominations, and turned friendship, humiliation, and spectacularly bad bathroom decisions into cinematic gold.

Yet Bridesmaids 2 remains firmly at the altar, thanks to an industry that has become rather too fond of corporate thinking. Now, while revisiting the film’s glorious wedding-day disasters, Melissa McCarthy has revealed what is really keeping Bridesmaids 2 from getting made.

Melissa McCarthy on why Bridesmaids 2 is still a no show

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Melissa McCarthy has offered a peek behind the curtain of Bridesmaids 2, and the proposed sequel apparently had a wonderfully chaotic premise. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo had imagined Lillian getting divorced and celebrating with a divorce party, essentially swapping wedding-day mayhem for post-marriage madness. It sounded like another recipe for gloriously messy comedy.

“I do not know. I think it has gotten so corporate. I miss the people that work off their gut,” she confessed to Variety.

For Melissa McCarthy, the sequel mystery seems less about a shortage of ideas and more about how Hollywood has changed. She remembered Bridesmaids as difficult but wildly enjoyable to make, with the cast laughing so uncontrollably that filming sometimes became an accidental comedy of its own. Rose Byrne hiding behind a magazine while laughing on the plane was apparently not even scripted.

The set was practically a comedy club disguised as a film production, with performers ducking under tables and pretending to drop things whenever the laughter became impossible to contain, she told Variety. McCarthy recalled being genuinely shocked that some scenes were successfully filmed at all. That spontaneous, instinctive atmosphere, she suggested, is precisely what feels harder to find in today’s increasingly corporate movie business.

Is 'Bridesmaids' Available on Netflix? Where Can You Watch the 2011 Rom-Com in 2026?

While Melissa McCarthy sees Hollywood’s corporate machinery as the roadblock to Bridesmaids 2, Kristen Wiig does not seem convinced there needs to be one.

Kristen Wiig on Bridesmaids 2

Kristen Wiig has been clear that she never felt a burning need to return to Bridesmaids for another round. The actress, who co-wrote the 2011 comedy with Annie Mumolo, said passing on a sequel was not difficult because money was never her main creative motivation. For Wiig, the original simply told the story it needed to tell.

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via Imago

She has also explained that Annie’s journey reached a natural stopping point once the character repaired her life, making another chapter feel unnecessary. Wiig has repeatedly said there have been no serious ongoing conversations about continuing the story, even though she remains fond of the film and its cast. That makes Melissa McCarthy’s comments about Hollywood’s corporate machinery only part of the Bridesmaids 2 story.

“I Don’t Really Think I Knew”- Kristen Wiig Admits 'Bridesmaids’ Fame Hit Her Only Post-'Saturday Night Live'

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Does Melissa McCarthy have a point about Hollywood becoming increasingly “corporate”?  Let us know in the comments! 

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Iffat Siddiqui

1414 articles

Iffat is an Entertainment Journalist at Netflix Junkie. A word wizard, she had the sorting hat smoke at the seams owing to her excellence in everything Hollywood and cinema until it finally declared that she belonged to the Royals, specifically Meghan Markle. Boasting over 300 articles (and counting), each one tastefully infused with the right mix of facts, wit, opinion, and essentially everything to make a perfect pop culture piece, she is the epitome of a trustworthy entertainment journalist.

Edited By: Adiba Nizami

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