Seth Rogen starred in Pineapple Express in 2008, and fans of the movie have been asking if there are plans for a sequel to revisit the characters.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen read a viewer question that asked if a follow-up film of the buddy stoner action comedy was a possibility.
“Maybe,” Rogen said. “We can probably sell it to streaming or something.”
When Cohen noted that he thinks there’s “a big demand” for a sequel, Rogen added, “There could be. You never know. I don’t know. I’m not great with sequels. It’s not where my mind goes, but maybe one day.”
Rogen wrote the screenplay for Pineapple Express alongside Evan Goldberg based on a story by the writing duo and Judd Apatow, who also produced the movie. David Gordon Green directed the film which also starred James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosy Perez and Danny McBride.
A sequel was planned after the box office success of the “weed movie,” but was scrapped due to budget.
“We tried to make one,” Rogen said on The Howard Stern Show in 2020. “Thanks to the Sony hack, you can actually find the email when Sony decided to kill the movie and not make it. It was something we were very open to several years ago, but Sony was not that interested in it.”
In 2013, Sony released a fake Pineapple Express 2 trailer for April Fool’s Day to promote Rogen’s film This Is the End.
A sequel for a film starring Rogen and Franco will probably be hard to do, given that the actors are no longer friends.
In 2018, multiple women accused Franco of inappropriate sexual behaviour. More accusations would become public, including one that he eventually settled, where the actor was accused of intimidating students into gratuitous and exploitative sexual situations.
In an interview with Variety in 2024, Franco said he and Rogen were no longer friends.
“No. I haven’t talked to Seth. I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over,” Franco told the publication. “And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”
Rogen had initially supported his friend, but he distanced himself from Franco as more accusations came up. In 2021, Rogen told The Times, “I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now.”
Although at the time Rogen didn’t say his relationship with Franco had ended, Rogen did say “it is not a coincidence” that their friendship changed amid the accusations.
“I don’t know if I can define that right now during this interview. I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic,” Rogen said about his relationship with Franco.
