Sweet Home Alabama star Josh Lucas gives us hope for a sequel
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Ever wonder what happened to Melanie Smooter and Jake Perry after the credits rolled in Sweet Home Alabama? Well, you just might find out.
Josh Lucas, who played Reese Witherspoon's estranged husband with whom she falls back in love in the 2002 rom-com (after getting engaged to Patrick Dempsey's Andrew Hennings), recently stopped by SiriusXM's Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw, where the host asked if fans would ever get a sequel.
The answer? Lucas is game, but his costar has a really, really, really busy schedule.
Everett Collection Reese Witherspoon and Josh Lucas in 'Sweet Home Alabama'
"Look, I would love to do the sequel… The issue is Reese has got a book club," Lucas said with a hearty chuckle, referring to the many hats Witherspoon wears these days, including actress, executive producer, Hello Sunshine founder, and mom. "And I'm saying that like, laughingly, but Reese is, you know, I've heard like, 'Oh, you can talk to her about stuff five years from now, now.'... She's a mogul."
Lucas isn't wrong. The Morning Show and Big Little Lies actress and executive producer has plenty on her plate, including the long-awaited Legally Blonde 3, which is expected to hit theaters in 2022.
When he and Witherspoon worked together, just after the turn of the century (yeah, it was that long ago), he knew she was destined for great things.
"Back when I was doing Sweet Home Alabama, I, for some reason, remember telling the director or somebody... 'I bet this woman ends up running a movie studio one day,'" Lucas told Shaw. "And she's even beyond that at this point. I mean… she's her own version of Oprah Winfrey now, right?… And it's extraordinary and not surprising either, at all."
Lucas has shared his interest in reuniting with Witherspoon for a Sweet Home Alabama follow-up before. When asked about it on The Talk in 2017, he said he'd like to see a lot more explored for Melanie and Jake.
"Obviously I don't know where it would go, but I think it would be so fascinating to see where these two characters and the children and where everyone ended up," he said at the time. "Are they still together? Are they divorced? Do they want to be back together? I mean, there's so many different ideas… you know, we all know life is long and complex and they had an interesting relationship to begin with."
So, does that mean we should pencil in our Alabama reunion for 2026?
Listen to the episode of Pop Culture Spotlight below.
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