Last year, Steven Soderbergh released his Netflix drama High Flying Bird, which starred André Holland as a sports agent trying to preserve his job in the middle of an NBA lockout while fighting to defend athletes from the predatory schemes of team owners. It was a timely movie for the NBA of 2019, and now it’s becoming timely again thanks to the way the coronavirus has completely shut down professional sports. It’s fitting, then, that Holland recently revealed during an appearance on the Reckon Interview podcast (via Al.com) that he’s not only working on a sequel but that the sequel might touch on how this pandemic is impacting athletes.
Holland says he expects the High Flying Bird sequel to be more “all-encompassing” and “even better” than the first movie, with that one just “[planting] the seed” about the potential for NBA players to work together and take a little more control of the sport and “further level the playing field” with the team owners. Soderbergh is apparently “involved” in the discussions that Holland is having about this sequel, but at this point it’s unclear if he will return to direct. On that note, it’s worth saying that this all seems pretty early, especially with this whole pandemic thing going on, so it might be a bit before we see any real movement on this.