A Brief History of Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle Talking About That ‘Trainspotting’ Sequel

The original ‘Trainspotting’ (Miramax Films)

Ewan McGregor’s big breakthrough came courtesy of his starring role in Danny Boyle’s 1996 indie hit Trainspotting, about a group of rowdy young heroin junkies in Scotland. And though McGregor has since gone on to forge a formidable career thanks to roles in Velvet Goldmine, Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, Beginners, The Impossible and of course the Star Wars prequels, he’s spent the better part of the past decade answering questions about whether he’d be open to reprising his role as Mark “Rent Boy” Renton, an addict struggling to get by in late-1980s Edinburgh. Just this week he told Collider about the impending Trainspotting sequel: “The script only arrived very recently, which was really, really, really good. I think, if that had not happened, none of us would be into it…I think we’re all sort of somewhat protective of what Trainspotting means to people, and what it means to us.”

McGregor also said Trainspotting 2 will commence filming in May, bringing to a close one of the longer running will-they-or-won’t-they questions in recent Hollywood history. In honor of McGregor’s latest comments, here’s a look back at some of the many times the actor and his colleagues suggested that the project was almost a go — or, conversely, that it was never going to happen.

-In 2010, McGregor made it clear that his distaste for author Irvine Welsh’s follow-up to the novel Trainspotting, called Porno, was a primary reason for not wanting to do a sequel: “It doesn’t sound great to me because I didn’t hugely love the book. The sequel to Trainspotting, the novel, is a book called Porno, and I didn’t think it was as amazing. The novel Trainspotting is quite an amazing book.”

-That same year, however, Boyle seemed more upbeat about the sequel’s prospects, telling Cinematical: “It will happen, I think. I mean, we’ll approach them all again about it, but it will depend on what place they’re all at. We have a very strong idea that it would be a wonderful thing to re-approach, to do again, when they have aged clearly into a mid-life kind of crisis, basically. “

-In 2013, McGregor seemed more at ease with an idea of a second go-round, telling audiences at a post-Trainspotting screening: “It’s funny — Irvine Welsh’s novel, Porno, is set 10 years after Trainspotting, but I wasn’t ready to do it then, for lots of reasons…. But now there’s talk of it happening in a few years’ time, and I’m totally up for it. I’d be so chuffed to be back on set with everybody.”

-In 2014, he was even more optimistic, telling Details magazine:
“It looks like it might happen. And I’d be up for it. I wouldn’t have been 10 years ago, but I am now.“

-Part of the reason he was more up for it? He’d finally reconciled with director Boyle, whom he’d long resented for casting Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach: “It was an unfortunate situation, and it wasn’t handled well. I was very upset. But time has gone by, and we put to bed the bad feelings.”

-In June 2015, momentum was gathering, as McGregor told a crowd at the Edinburgh Film Festival: “It might be the film that brings me back [to Edinburgh]. I would be up for it, I’ve said that to Danny. Everybody has talked about it and speculated about it, but I don’t if it’s happening yet. I’ve not seen a script, and I don’t know if there is one.“

-In September 2015, Boyle outright stated it would be his next film, if scheduling permitted, telling Deadline: “All the four main actors want to come back and do it… Now it is only a matter of getting all their schedules together which is complicated by two of them doing American TV series.”

-In November 2015, McGregor’s Trainspotting co-star Robert Carlyle told NME that he was raring to get cameras rolling, after having read a new screenplay that was nothing short of amazing: “You’re going to think, ‘Of course he’s going to say this,’ but honestly, it’s one of the best scripts I’ve f—ing read. I mean, ever…. And though I’m obviously feeling a little bit tense about it because of the success of the first film, I’ll tell you this: If anyone can pull it off it’s Danny Boyle.“

-In a March 31 interview with Creative Screenwriting magazine, writer John Hodge, who penned the original Trainspotting screenplay and is working on the sequel, talked about revisiting the characters in their 40s: “I don’t want to give away what happens, but it’s just a question of ‘What are these guys doing now?’ and trying to present it in an interesting way. That’s the challenge. The film is about men in their 40s and the sad fact is that men in their 40s are not that interesting on screen [Laughs]. The film has to reach for different things other than chaos and self-destruction, so we’ll see.”

Watch the original ‘Trainspotting’ trailer: