Seinfeld sat down with fellow comic and 'Unfrosted' co-star Jim Gaffigan for a new installment of 'Spilling the E-Tea.'
Jerry Seinfeld isn't interested in making endless sequels just for the sake of money. For the Unfrosted star, cinema is all about making art.
The comedy titan, 69, recently sat down with fellow comic Jim Gaffigan for a new installment of "Spilling the E-Tea," and the Unfrosted co-stars interviewed each other about their new project -- and possibly doing a sequel in the future.
"I don't want to even think about that," Seinfeld said. "How many movies have they ruined by making sequels?"
One film franchise that came to mind for the Bee Movie star was The Hangover -- which infamously began strong, but each following entry in the trilogy was increasingly panned by critics.
"I told Zach Galifianakis that he was this underground, you know, alt comic, and I was like, 'I'm the mainstream, NBC guy.' And [yet] I ended my series at the top as an art piece decision," Seinfeld said of his eponymous Seinfeld sitcom, "and he whored out The Hangover [franchise] until we hated it."
"Yeah, but he does own this entire city block that we're on right now?" Gaffigan, 57, joked of the comic actor, before pointing out that not all sequels are bad -- noting The Godfather Part 2 as a particularly strong example.
"That messed up the entire industry," Seinfeld shot back. "Because that worked, everybody thought, 'Well, Godfather 2 worked, so let's make 12 more Barbies.'"
Seinfeld is making his feature film directorial debut with Unfrosted, which tells a fictionalized history of Kellogg's and Post Cereal as they compete to create the beloved pastry treat now known as Pop-Tarts.
Seinfeld co-wrote the screenplay and stars as Bob Cabana, a Kellogg's exec who spearheads the development of Pop-Tarts. Gaffigan, meanwhile, stars as Edsel Kellogg III, head of the Kellogg's company.
The film features a truly stacked all-star cast, including Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, Max Greenfield, Peter Dinklage, Bill Burr, Dan Levy, James Marsden, Tony Hale, Cedric the Entertainer and Jon Hamm, to name a few.
According to Seinfeld, if they ever did create an Unfrosted 2, it would likely revolve around Christian Slater's character -- a villainous milkman who works as a hitman for the American milk syndicate.
"You would probably have to just focus on Christian Slater's evil milkman," Seinfeld suggested. "Just go into his life."
As for The Hangover franchise, there are some fans who think there could still be more life in it -- and star Bradley Cooper made headlines when he suggested he'd be down to return to his role.
During a podcast appearance on The New Yorker Radio Hour in November, Cooper was asked if he's only interested in serious roles now, or if he'd be down to come back for a theoretical fourth installment of The Hangover franchise. He replied, "I would probably do Hangover 4 in an instant, yeah."
The actor spoke with ET at the 2023 Gotham Awards in New York City a week after his appearance on the podcast and addressed his remarks.
"Yeah, I meant it," Cooper said of his willingness to sign on, adding, "It'll never happen, but yeah."
As for Unfrosted, the star-studded comedy premieres May 3 on Netflix.
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