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1994 is a pivotal year in pop culture in a lot of ways; it gave us Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, Scott Summers finally got married to Jean Grey, and Star Trek: The Next Generation finally wrapped up. No one had a better year in 1994, though, than comedian Jim Carrey. Though well known to some thanks to bit parts in films like Peggy Sue Got Married and over a hundred episodes of In Living Color, he officially became a household name that year with a trio of movies that cemented his place in Hollywood history, including: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, and The Mask.
All three of those movies would go on to become blockbuster successes, with two of the three getting sequels with Carrey himself…except for The Mask. Not for lack of trying, though, as a sequel to The Mask was certainly considered at the time the movie came out and was a success. Though 2005’s Son of the Mask eventually came out (and is now regarded as one of the worst movies ever), Carrey himself never returned to the role of Stanley Ipkiss. Speaking with in a new interview for the 4K re-release of his Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Eraser, we asked director Chuck Russell to clear up the rumors about a sequel to The Mask, where he confirmed that one was written but also that Carrey chose another project instead.
The Mask 2 Scrapped After Jim Carrey Picked Another Film
“I wrote a draft for (The Mask sequel),” Russell confirmed. “Everyone loved the draft. Jim, well, I don’t want to get…I love Jim Carrey. Who knows, there may be another Mask; I’d love to do it. But at the time, Jim had decided to do How the Grinch Stole Christmas. So whatever, it’s one thing about a time slot, but that sequel was never ignited after that, which was too bad at the time.”
Carrey has previously confirmed that he was offered $10 million to return for a sequel to The Mask, but his experience on Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls is what scared him away from returning to another iconic character. Given the timeline that Russell reveals, though, with Carrey deciding to make The Grinch rather than The Mask 2, it points to a specific place in Carrey’s overall career.
By that point, the late ’90s, the comedian had begun to make the transition from comedy superstar to stretching his muscles as a dramatic performer, starring in Man on the Moon and The Truman Show. Though Carrey has also been vocal about how uncomfortable the make-up effects were for playing The Grinch, he made a good choice, creating one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time.
Russell went on to note, though, that at the time that the original The Mask was released, there was a lingering issue with how Hollywood approached making sequels that further prevented The Mask 2 from happening. Despite the success of a movie igniting interest in a follow-up, at the time it was almost mandatory that a sequel get made but also that it would do so with a fraction of the budget of the first film.
“In the 90s… people weren’t as sequel hungry, because the studios had a habit then of making the sequel for less money, which is not that smart,” Russell said. “So a lot of times the sequel would be an also-ran kind of sequel. Now everyone understands the financial advantage of making a great sequel. It seems odd we weren’t all hungry to do a sequel at the time. But I was looking forward to breaking new ground for myself and getting into another genre… But that’s, you’d have to ask the studio about that decision.”
To his credit, Russell was quick to note other potential sequels to movies he’s directed that he would have loved to return for, but never got the opportunity, pointing not only to Eraser (which is surprising that it didn’t happen given its financial success), but another of his action movies.
“I thought Scorpion King deserved a full sequel with Dwayne in it,” Russell added. “But they decided to do a chain of smaller films that were fun.”
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