Netflix has taken a shine to Bright, the streamer's fantasy cop drama that debuted this December.

The streaming giant has greenlighted a sequel that is expected to reunite stars Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, along with director David Ayer.

Bright takes place in a fictional Los Angeles filled with fairies, elves and magic wands while acting as an allegory for real-world race relations. It follows a veteran cop (Smith) who reluctantly takes on a new partner, an Orc played by Edgerton, and has to protect a magical wand from law enforcement, criminals and an array of supernatural characters.

Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless are also returning as producers.

One key player who will not be returning for round two is writer Max Landis, who was paid a reported $3 million to $4 million for his screenplay in 2016 when the project ignited a bidding war before ultimately selling to Netflix.


Ayer will be taking over scripting duties. The director commonly takes on both writer and director responsibilities on his features, including the WWII film Fury and the cop drama End of Watch.

Bright had a reported budget of $90 million, making it Netflix's first big foray into tentpole filmmaking. Rumors of a follow-up have been swirling since before the feature's Dec. 22 premiere, but the streamer was waiting to see how the movie performed with audiences to make anything official.

While the film was largely panned by critics, with The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore calling it "plenty embarrassing," Bright is currently the No. 1 movie on Netflix in over 190 countries, and is being streamed more by international users than domestic.

According to Nielsen, an average of 11 million U.S. Netflix users streamed Bright during its first three days of release. And this is an underestimation, since Nielsen only tracks users who watched the film through a TV, not those who streamed on a computer or mobile device.

MAY 07, 2018 12:43pm PT by Borys Kit
'Bright' Sequel Lands 'Beauty and the Beast' Writer (Exclusive)

David Ayer is returning as director.

Netflix’s sequel to Bright, the digital streamer’s Will Smith-starring action fantasy, is moving ahead with a new writer.

Evan Spiliotopoulos, who worked on Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast as well as the Snow White-centric fantasy The Huntsman: Winter's War, has been tapped to pen the script for the follow-up, which will once again be directed by David Ayer.

Not returning is Max Landis, the scribe who wrote the initial spec script for the first movie and was paid a reported $3 million to $4 million in 2016, when the project ignited a bidding war that Netflix ultimately won. Sources say Landis and Ayer disagreed creatively, which led to a parting of ways.

Smith and Joel Edgerton are expected to return as mismatched colleagues, a veteran cop and his partner, an Orc, respectively. (Bright takes place in a fictional Los Angeles filled with fairies, elves and magic wands, while acting as an allegory for real-world race relations.) The original story saw the pair reluctantly team up to protect a magical wand from law enforcement, criminals and an array of supernatural characters.

Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless are returning as producers.

Bright was a major movie for Netflix, costing a reported $90 million to make but designed to show Hollywood that the streamer could compete against studio blockbusters. It proved to be an audience hit, with tracking firm Nielsen reporting that 11 million U.S. Netflix users streamed the pic during its first three days of release. (And that, observers pointed out, was an underestimation as Nielsen only counted users who watched the film through a TV, not those who streamed on a computer or mobile device.)

Spiliotopoulos is repped by WME, manager D.J. Talbot, Fourth Wall Management and attorney Sean Marks.

2017’s Bright was one of Netflix’s first major plays at original movies. The $90 million Will Smith visual effects film was also criticized for exhibiting Netflix’s underdeveloped narratives on a grand scale. However, Netflix announced a sequel before Bright even premiered and Ayer says that is still in the works.

“Still in development,” Ayer said. “We’re working on it so hopefully we’ll be able to mount that up soon.”

Smith played a human cop partnered with an orc (Joel Edgerton) in a modern day Los Angeles filled with fantastical creatures. Ayer indicated the sequel would take advantage of the world-building established but not fully explored in the first film.

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us to explore the world more,” Ayer said. “I think people felt like there was a lot of doorways to explore. People were like, ‘Tell us about the dragon. Tell us about this, the history.’ So it’s a very rich world and I think we’re going to drill down some more.”

If Ayer is hearing from Bright fans, that backs up reports that millions of people did watch Bright and they weren’t all critical.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is negotiating with Louis Leterrier to direct Bright 2, the sequel to the 2017 film that kicked off the streamer’s feature film franchise launch aspirations.

David Ayer directed the first film and was attached to the sequel, but he has been focused on rewriting to direct Dirty Dozen for Warner Bros, and he has other projects at Netflix.

The film will reteam Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in the tale of mismatched crime fighting partners, one of whom is an orc. The script is by Ayer and Evan Spiliotopoulos with a rewrite by T.S. Nowlin. The pic is produced by Ayer, Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless.

Netflix set sights on a sequel in early 2018 after the original was released and watched by a record estimated 60 million, with far and away the most views for a Netflix film in its first week. Those numbers have been eclipsed by a number of followup big budget films, all topped by Extraction, the latest action film that Deadline revealed is getting a sequel after Netflix projected that the film will be viewed by 90 million households in its first four weeks of release.

Sources said that the Bright sequel picks up the travails of the odd partnership, but sets it on an international stage. Bought by Netflix after a ferocious spec package auction, the film got so-so reviews, but it was important in that it got the streamer in business with Smith, and now big movie stars routinely top line Netflix film and TV series.

In Leterrier, Netflix is bringing in a director who helmed Now You See Me, Clash of the Titans, The Transporter films, Unleashed and for Netflix he has directed all 10 episodes of the series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which he exec produced.

They will ready the film to begin production as soon as it is possible to begin making films again.

Leterrier is repped by CAA and Management 360.

Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw also confirms that Netflix has also canceled plans to move forward with Bright 2, a sequel to the 2017 David Ayer-directed movie that starred Smith. In the original film, Smith starred as Daryl Ward, an LAPD detective in a version of LA where humans coexist with a number of different mystical creatures. He was slated to reprise his role in the sequel. The original film was not received well by critics but was reported at the time to be one of the biggest film releases ever for the streaming service, so it was no wonder that a sequel was announced to be in development in January 2018. After four years, the film has officially been canceled. The film also got a spin-off animated series called Bright: Samurai Soul in 2021, but it is currently unknown if any other Bright projects will arrive on Netflix.