Tonight’s Best Picture and Best Director race at the 2015 Oscars basically boils down to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman. Filmed over the course of 12 years by Linklater, Boyhood is a remarkable accomplishment, but it’s not a film that immediately inspires thoughts of a sequel. Although he previously expressed no desire in making a sequel, Linklater has now changed his tune, revealing that Boyhood follow-up is quite possible.

Linklater appeared on Jeff Goldsmith’s Q&A (via The Playlist) to discuss Boyhood in the lead-up to the Oscars. Near the end of the podcast, Goldsmith asks Linklater if he’s considering a sequel — contrary to his statements from last year, Linklater now seems interested in the idea:

To be honest… this film first met its audience exactly a year ago and for the first six months of the year, my answer to that was absolutely not. This was 12 years, it was first grade through 12th grade; it was about getting out of high school. I had no idea about another story, there’s nothing to say. It hadn’t crossed my mind.

But I don’t know if it’s been a combination of  finally feeling that this is over or being asked a similar question a bunch over the last year, that I thought, well, I wake up in the morning thinking, ‘the 20s are pretty formative, you know?’ That’s where you really become who you’re going to be. It’s one thing to grow up and go to college, but it’s another thing to… So, I will admit my mind has drifted towards [this sequel idea].

A Boyhood sequel (Manhood? Yikes) exploring Mason’s life in college and throughout his 20s and maybe beyond could be interesting, and as Linklater notes, those are definitely some of our most formative years, as we learn how to become adults and strive to avoid the mistakes of our parents. Given Mason’s family life and the optimistic place where Boyhood left off, this concept is at least a little attractive.

Linklater goes on to say that a sequel likely wouldn’t follow the same structure as the first film, and credits his work on the Before trilogy with teaching him that there’s always more stories to tell with compelling characters:

The twelve years [structure] came out of [school structure]. It wouldn’t have to be twelve years. It wouldn’t have to be… I mean, who knows. I mean, if I learned anything on the Before trilogy it took five years to realize that Jesse and Celine were still alive and had anything to say. This one would probably be more accelerated, but who knows.

The director adds that he won’t make a sequel to Boyhood unless he has something important to say with it, even though he’d love to work with the cast again. Linklater recently won the Golden Globe for Best Director for Boyhood, which is nominated for six awards at tonight’s Oscars. Maybe if it takes home a few more trophies, Linklater will be motivated to pursue this sequel idea.

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