Brian May Says ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Sequel Not In The Cards. . . For Now

Brian May says that a sequel to Bohemian Rhapsody is not in the cards for Queen — while admitting there might be more in the group's story left to mine. The Oscar-winning feature has grossed over $900 million globally, marking the film the most successful musical biopic in history.

While talking to Rolling Stone, co-founding guitarist Brian May admitted that a sequel had been bandied about once the movie proved to be such an iconic success: “Don’t think we didn’t think about it. We’ve talked. Basically we think not, at the moment. Things could change, I suppose, but I think it would be difficult. I don’t think that would be an uplifting thing to do. 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.”

Seeing as how Bohemian Rhapsody dealt with Queen's career and Freddie Mercury's life in admittedly broad strokes, May conceded that there definitely is much more to the band's story than movie-goers saw: “There’s a million things in our career which you couldn’t show in a movie 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.”

Last month Queen + Adam Lambert rescheduled their 27-date UK & European “Rhapsody Tour” due to the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak. Brian May spoke about the tour being pout on ice: “It was our biggest tour ever. We sold 400,000 tickets for the next leg and we had the best show we’d ever put together. We were in peak condition, but it had to stop. We just don’t have any other weapons at the moment except minimizing human interactions so that the virus doesn’t anywhere to go.”

Roger Taylor and Brian May recently spoke about bringing a realistic portrayal of Freddie Mercury to the big screen: “(Roger Taylor): I think a lot of people, they think about Freddie — the media tend to think, 'Oh, flamboyant,' whatever, y'know? And they remember him for other things and they tend to forget that he was a brilliant musician. I think the film does pay good attention to the fact that Freddie was a real great, great, musician. (Brian May): We all feel we want to portray Freddie's humanity, we want to portray him as a human being — like Roger says, as a musician. And it had to be truthful, and it had to be not too indulgent, and it had to be watchable, and I think Freddie would say, 'Number One, it had to be entertaining.' And I think you have to laugh, you have to cry, and I believe people will do in this movie.”