Brian May Admits ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Sequel Under Consideration

Queen's Brian May admitted on Instagram Live that he and Roger Taylor are seriously mulling over the prospects for a sequel to the band's Oscar-winning biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, which chronicled that band's story and the life of late-frontman Freddie Mercury.

Despite past comments to the contrary, May was quoted by NME as saying, “We are looking at it. Yeah, we have been looking at ideas. It’s going to be hard to follow that one as none of us could have predicted how massive that was going to be. We put a lot of heart and soul into making it and no one could have predicted (its success) as it was bigger than Gone With The Wind. But yes, we are thinking maybe it could happen, but it would have to be a great script. It’s going to take a while to figure that out.”

Bohemian Rhapsody, which had a $55 million dollar, budget has grossed over $900 million globally, marking the film the most successful musical biopic in history.

Last year, Brian May sang a different tune to Rolling Stone, explaining that the prospects for a sequel seemed slim at best: “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 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.”

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.”