There was a lot of pressure riding on Bridesmaids ahead of the film’s release in 2011. Ridiculous but true, the future of female-driven comedy itself was placed on the success or failure of Bridesmaids. If the film was a hit, studios would invest in other female-driven comedies. If it failed, they’d point to Bridesmaids as the reason it was too “risky.” Yes, I know, it’s insane, but the pressure was real.

Luckily it all worked out. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo's script was a sharp, funny, and sweet story about friendship, and Paul Feig directed the hell out of it. The film grossed over $280 million at the worldwide box office and spawned a slew of similarly plotted comedies, but the one thing it didn’t spawn was Bridesmaids 2. Feig recently appeared on our interview series Collider Connected to discuss his career and the upcoming HBO Max series Love Life and explained why what made the first film work won’t be easy to replicate in a seuqel:

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Image via Universal Pictures

“Everybody thinks they want a Bridesmaids sequel, and it could be fun, but I always have to say this: Bridesmaids works—you remember all the comedy stuff, that was great, but the reason that movie worked is because it was about Kristen Wiig’s character who was a very confident person before the movie began who has this total crash because her bakery goes out of business and everything falls apart in her life. So we meet her and she’s a disaster. She’s desperately trying to hang onto this one thing, which is her friendship with Maya Rudolph’s character, and that takes her through the fire. That’s why all this stuff happens, because she’s just acting out and trying desperately to save things, and by the end she heals herself, as much as you can. That’s what you latch onto in that film. So to do a sequel, I think you’re basically just gonna have to have a funny wedding. And I’ve seen those movies a million times and some of them are good and some of them are like okay whatever. It’s obviously up to Kristen, she’s the keeper of the keys on that, but it would have to be something that you can emotionally engage in again and not just go, ‘It’s Megan’s crazy wedding in the Bahamas!’ and all kinds of hijinks happen. That could be funny, but I just think you need more for a movie to be great.”

He’s not wrong. Fans spent years clamoring for a Zoolander sequel, and when Ben Stiller made a follow-up that was basically more of the same, the audience didn’t show up and the movie itself was just fine. Yes, a Bridesmaids sequel could be fun, but I’m actually happier that we got films like Spy and Ghostbusters and A Simple Favor out of Feig instead. Indeed, Feig added that of the films he's made, Spy and Ghostbusters are actually the two that he'd most like to make sequels to. You hear that, Disney-Fox? The ball for Spy 2 is in your court!

And as for Wiig and Mumolo, they’ve got an entirely new film featuring entirely new characters on the horizon, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

For more from Feig, check out what he had to say about his time on The Office and check out our full hourlong interview below.