Jack Black says he's "ready" and wishing for School Of Rock 2

A stage musical and TV series haven't quenched Jack Black's thirst for more School Of Rock

By William Hughes | March 22, 2024 | 3:07am

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For a film that had a lot of question marks hanging over its head once upon a time—Richard Linklater making a family-friendly kids comedy written by and starring the creative team behind the very forgettable Orange County? Who’d ever fall in love with that?—2003's School Of Rock has had a surprisingly long legacy. The aforementioned star and writer (you’d know them as Jack Black and The White Lotus’ Mike White) have obviously gone on to very big things, but even the School Of Rock brand itself has had an unexpectedly long life: A massively successful stage adaptation from Andrew Lloyd Weber that ran for several years in the 2010s, followed by a three-season TV series at Nickelodeon.

None of which has apparently fulfilled Black’s hunger for even more time as music teacher/charming fraud committer Dewey Finn, telling JOE this week that he’s “ready” to see School Of Rock 2 get off the ground. (Also, he wants White, who co-starred in the original, to write the script, but acknowledges that he might be busy with “the best show on TV.”) Given that Black is currently promoting his fourth installment of the Kung Fu Panda movies, his zeitgeist-seizing sequel instincts are pretty clearly on point. But also, he just sounds genuinely nostalgic for the project. (The fact that it’s one of the first times he picked up widespread recognition as an actor, rather than just playing Shallow Hal or the most sarcastic man in the room in High Fidelity, probably doesn’t hurt those fond memories.)