Young Washington getting sequel to answer whatever the hell happened to that guy

We are, in case it wasn’t clear, pretty firmly in the Angel Studios Zone here: That area of semi-independent moviegoing where you look at a film marquee or list of box office results, go “What the fuck is that?” and then find out that some movie aimed directly at the most uncle-coded portions of America’s heartland is making wild amounts of money right out of the corner of your eye. And while Young Washington isn’t clearing Sound Of Freedom or “The Chosen in theaters” numbers, it is reportedly doing better than expected in its opening weekend, to the tune of $18 million, and is actually predicted to beat Warner Bros.’ Supergirl in its second week in theaters.

As the title suggests, Erwin’s film purports to do for Washingtons what Young Sheldon did for Sheldons, telling the story of the future first president up through the Battle Of The Monongahela in 1755. (Which means, somewhat ironically, that the big patriotic release of the 4th of July weekend is centered on a point in Washington’s life where he was a proud and patriotic British militia officer.) The film stars William Franklyn-Miller as Washington himself, surrounded by “big-names-collecting-slightly-less-big-paycheck” types like Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammer, Andy Serkis, and Mary-Louise Parker—who, as Washington’s mother, assures him that all his suffering is just part of God’s big plan to ensure someone with a sufficiently distinctive haircut ends up on the one dollar bill.

Erwin—who, with his brother Andrew, has been plowing the faith-based filmmaking fields since before “adult survivor of abortion” drama October Baby back in 2006—promised that he’s already working on writing a sequel, ensuring that audiences no longer need to walk out of Young Washington theaters wondering what the fuck ever wound up happening to that guy.