One Of Jim Carrey's Biggest Box Office Hits Is Getting A Sequel, But Will It Work?

For so many of us, the Christmas holiday is a season about warmth, charity, and togetherness. However, for a disturbingly large number of people, it also seems to be about watching Christine Baranski get all horned up for the Grinch. For those in the latter camp, prepare to get horned up yourself, as The Hollywood Reporter revealed today that producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard, and star Jim Carrey are all officially in talks to make a sequel to 2000's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." That's right, Howard's most horrific cinematic achievement until "Hillbilly Elegy" is getting a part two! 

There are various reasons for this, the primary one being that the original film was one of Carrey's biggest box office hits, grossing $351 million on a $123 million budget. It's also inexplicably enjoyed a steady popularity amongst those who first saw it at a tender age, imprinting upon Carrey's fuzzy green monstrosity like Jacob and Renesmee in "Breaking Dawn." To those of us whose frontal lobes were already fairly developed by our first viewing, this adoration comes as a bit of a shock, as Howard's film is filled with more eldritch horrors than your average Lovecraft adaptation.

Still, the bizarre love for the 2000 "Grinch" is not what we're here to decipher. The more pressing question is: just what the heck will this sequel be about? The Grinch already stole Christmas once, and seemed to be cool with the holiday and the citizens of Whoville at the end of the film. It's not like Dr. Seuss, who wrote the original 1957 children's book, penned any sequels. Whatever Howard and company have cooking isn't yet clear, but it seems like the clearest way forward is for them to lean into the skid, get weird, and let Carrey loose once again.

Through the years, we've been thoroughly Grinched out with various adaptations of the beloved Seuss story, and most of them have been animated for a reason. Since the release of the 2000 movie, Jim Carrey has stated that he had a miserable time shooting the film, in large part because of Rick Baker and Gail Rowell-Ryan's outrageous makeup design, which took about eight hours to apply each day. In December of 2024, Carrey explained that he'd love to return to the character on the condition that it be realized "with motion capture and things like that." Given today's news, should we infer that this is the plan? Or has the spirit of Christmas caused Carrey's heart to grow several sizes and made him willing to put on the suit again?

Whichever is the case, it's clear that a "Grinch" sequel needs Carrey in order to work. While a mocap CGI version of Carrey's Grinch might be too uncanny valley to work as a nostalgic throwback, it did work for Yoda, so why not another ghastly green guy? Speaking of "Star Wars," Ron Howard's experience making "Solo" could come in handy for this sequel, which could feature the same mix of CG characters and practical creatures as that film. Certainly, Howard still has a streak of weirdness in him, if 2024's "Eden" was any indication. 

The sequel's writers — Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel — have the dubious pedigree of co-writing 2003's "The Cat in the Hat," another Seuss adaptation from Hell. The group definitely has its work cut out for it, as the public domain Grinch horror movie "The Mean One" demonstrates. I have every belief that they can outdo that one.