In fact, according to Nolan, it wasn't even a follow-up at all. He told MovieWeb, “To be honest I started work on ‘Insomnia’ some months before ‘Memento’ was even released in theaters, so I wasn't really having to view ‘Insomnia’ necessarily as a follow-up in the sense that people would question it because no one really knew the extent ‘Memento’ would get out there at the time.”