Is Napoleon Dynamite 2 Happening, Or Should We Just Enjoy Some Tots Without Him?
Everyone has a high school movie that rings uncomfortably true to their own experiences as a teenager. For some, it's a bitingly satirical portrait like "Heathers" or "Mean Girls," while for others, it's a brutally honest dramedy like "The Edge of Seventeen." But for me, there's only one film that really captures what my time was like as a non-Mormon attending a predominantly Mormon high school in a small Utah town in the early 2000s, and that's "Napoleon Dynamite." True, writer/director Jared Hess' 2004 cult hit takes place in the filmmaker's hometown of Preston, Idaho, but ... well, let's just say that if you know anything about small-town Utah and Idaho Mormon culture, then you know they weren't exactly worlds apart when the film was made.
I was fortunate enough to have graduated from high school literal weeks before "Napoleon Dynamite" arrived, which spared me from having to listen to my classmates constantly yell "Your mom goes to college!" and "Idiot!" at one another or go around wearing "Vote for Pedro" t-shirts. (From what I've been told, the students at my high school ate the film up in the years right after I'd left.) By the time I sat down and properly watched the movie sometime later, I had enough distance from my teen years to be more amused than mortified by how much Napoleon's world looks and feels like the one I knew in my adolescence. I can only imagine that watching a sequel would be tantamount to attending a high school reunion (except I would actually be morbidly curious enough to do the former).
Speaking of, with the film's 20th anniversary coming up, this seems like as fitting time as any for "Napoleon Dynamite 2" to finally happen. But will it? Here's what we know right now.
Why hasn't Napoleon Dynamite 2 happened yet?
Time for a history lesson! "Napoleon Dynamite" was a key entry in the "quirky" indie scene of the aughts, along with movies like "Garden State" and "Little Miss Sunshine." These films tended to share many of the same qualities, from their focus on specific small-town cultures to their peculiar styles of comedy and overly idiosyncratic characters. Hess would carry this general approach over to his subsequent work on films like "Nacho Libre," "Gentleman Broncos," and "Masterminds" over a decade after scoring his breakout success and well after the larger indie-quirk movement had fallen out of fashion. This is also part of why Hess' films have seen increasingly diminishing returns since "Nacho Libre," both financially and in terms of their critical appraisal.
As for Napoleon himself, actor Jon Heder (who collaborated with Hess on the black-and-white short film that inspired "Napoleon Dynamite," "Peluca," while they were in college), he briefly enjoyed a period of success playing "Napoleon types" in comedies like "The Benchwarmers" and "Blades of Glory" in the '00s. Heder would eventually reprise his career-making role in the exceptionally short-lived "Napoleon Dynamite" animated series, which only aired six episodes in 2012 before being pulled by Fox. However, in spite of this, Heder took to the art of voice acting and has since carved out a nice career lending his vocals to a wide variety of cartoon series (ranging from "The Legend of Korra" to "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" and "Pickle and Peanut").
Basically, what I'm getting at is that there just hasn't been much of a demand for more "Napoleon Dynamite" over the last two decades. But again, with the 20-year anniversary coming up quickly, nostalgia might be at an all-time high for Napoleon's flippin' sweet dance moves.
Everything the Napoleon Dynamite cast has said about a sequel
Despite being the brainchild of two guys who went to Bringham Young University, "Napoleon Dynamite" isn't actually a Mormon film (although the Mormon film industry is a very real thing — you can venture down that rabbit hole on your own). That said, it is the type of family-friendly film that most of the Mormons I went to high school with would've felt comfortable watching, which also makes it the kind of movie that even more religiously conservative parents would feel comfortable showing their kids.
"There's no expletives, there's no cussing [...] so this is a film that grandparents introduce their grandchildren to; families can sit together and watch and enjoy [it]," as Pedro actor Efren Ramirez noted in a 2022 interview with Canton Repository, commenting on the film's enduring popularity. Ramirez also teased the possibility of "Napoleon Dynamite 2" during the interview:
"Throughout the years, there were talks about doing a prequel and doing a sequel [...] and I don't think we're in that stage of having to do a prequel anymore. It all depends, because if you do a sequel, it's got [to] support the story, and it's got to continue on like what would actually happen."
Notably, when asked if a sequel was more or less likely to happen, Ramirez dodged the question. "Um, uh, legally, all I can say is it is up in the air," he replied, laughing as he did. Some months after that interview, Heder also hinted at "Napoleon Dynamite 2" during an appearance at Steel City Con (via ComicBook.com). "I don't think the book of Napoleon is closed forever. I honestly think there's gonna be something — whether it's a sequel, or a TV show, or another animated [show]," as he put it.
What could happen in Napoleon Dynamite 2?
It's worth recalling that "Napoleon Dynamite" was released theatrically by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which means it now falls under the Disney umbrella — and "we know how Disney feels about cashing in on everything that's ever been made," as Heder put it during his Steel City Con appearance. But where the original film was very light-hearted, Heder feels a follow-up about a middle-aged Napoleon would have to start out in a darker place. In his own words:
"Part of the charm of Napoleon is the innocence of youth. They're in high school, they don't have any real responsibility or accountability too much, it's all coming of age. Napoleon today would be: he's entered the workforce, he's got responsibility, he's paying for maybe one or two alimonies, child support for one of them."
By pure coincidence (or is it?), Ramirez also pitched a version of "Napoleon Dynamite 2" where Napoleon begins in a bad place during his interview with Canton Repository. Where he envisioned Pedro himself as being a happily married family man with an eye on running for city councilman, he suspected Napoleon "is probably dealing with certain kinds of struggles, so it's Pedro, as well as his uncle and a few other (people) who are trying to help Napoleon, and their kids try to acclimate themselves into a better way of life."
Truth be told, when you put Heder and Ramirez's comments together, their idea for "Napoleon Dynamite 2" sounds a lot like "Bill and Ted Face the Music," itself a rare exception to the rule that legacy comedy sequels tend to be pretty terrible. Ugh, don't make me talk myself into wanting to actually see this thing, gosh!
Who will the stars of Napoleon Dynamite 2 be?
Now that we've firmly established that Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez are all-in for "Napoleon Dynamite 2," what about the rest of the original film's actors? Many of them previously reprised their roles for the animated series, including Tina Majorino (Napoleon's romantic-y interest Deborah "Deb" Bradshaw), Aaron Ruell as Napoleon's brother Kipland or "Kip," Jon Gries as Napoleon and Kip's uncle Rico, Sandy Martin as Napoleon and Kip's grandmother Carlinda, and Diedrich Bader as Taekwondo instructor Rex. On those grounds, one assumes they would be game to show up in a sequel, if only briefly.
Other supporting cast members, like Haylie Duff (who played the popular girl and Pedro's class president rival Summer Wheatley), could similarly turn up, depending on just how hard "Napoleon Dynamite 2" wants to smack down on the nostalgia button. Bear in mind, this is also all predicated on Hess returning to direct, presumably after he completes the "Minecraft" film adaptation he's currently attached to (a very real project starring Jason Momoa, no less). So, in the meantime, it's best that you keep those tots tucked away so they stay nice and warm in your pocket.