Tom Hanks Says 'Thank God We Never Bothered Trying to Make' a Forrest Gump Sequel: 'Why Put a Hat on a Hat?'

Tom Hanks is glad he allowed it Forrest Gump stand alone.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor worked with him again Forrest Gump actress Robin Wright and director Robert Zemeckis for a new film Here. But while both Wright and Hanks said The New York Times this week when they have huge affection for the 1994 film, Hanks said he’s glad they never tried to revisit his iconic character

“It’s this extraordinary amalgam that stands completely on its own and never needs to be repeated,” said Fr Forrest Gump. “And thank God we never bothered to make another one. Why put a hat on top of a hat?”

Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in ‘Forrest Gump’ 1994 Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Robin Wright says she and Tom Hanks didn’t hang out on Forrest Gump Set because he was always ‘running away’

Despite Hanks’ words, there have apparently been at least a few attempts to get a sequel off the ground.

After success Forrest Gumpauthor Winston Groom, whose 1986 novel the film was based on, published a sequel in 1995. Gump & Co. finds the character trying to support his son after the failure of his Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, while also being haunted by the ghost of Jenny (played by Wright in the film). The novel also contains sly references to Zemeckis’ film, including Forrest and Forrest Jr. who met a young Tom Hanks on the set big and a character’s life that turns into a movie.

The screenwriter of the original film, Eric Roth, reportedly worked on the film adaptation Gump & Co.but as he said /Movie In 2008, world events got in the way.

Tom Hanks in the movie ‘Forrest Gump’ from 1994.

Sunset Boulevard/Getty

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“I turned in the script the night before 9/11,” Roth said. “And we sat down, Tom [Hanks] and Bob [Zemeckis] and I looked at each other and said, we think this is no longer relevant. The world has changed. Now the time has obviously passed, but maybe some things should just be one thing and left as they are.”

However, in 2007 Cinema Blend reported that the 1994 film’s producers Steve Tisch and Wendy Finerman are interested in reviving the sequel.

But it wasn’t until 2022 that Hanks suggested that a second film was not in the cards.

“We broke into a conversation about another Forrest Gump it lasted all of 40 minutes,” he said in an interview with Happy Sad Confused podcast. “And then we never … we said, ‘Guys, come on.’ ”

Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis in October 2024.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

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Still, Hanks said time this week to appreciate the original film’s place in people’s lives.

“I still get letters all the time saying, every year the family gets together, we do what we did in 1995, when it first appeared on home video. We all watch it, from beginning to end,” he said. “Right now, someone somewhere in the world is watching that movie from start to finish. And it lands with the same sense of comfort and familiarity.”

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Source: HIS Education