Based on the series of popular Saturday Night Live sketches about metalhead Wayne Campbell
and his shy best friend Garth, 1992's Wayne's World was a smash hit and a cultural phenomenon.
It spawned catchphrases galore ...
"Schwing.
Schwing."
... and put Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" back on the pop charts.
The respectable Wayne's World 2 was released in 1993… and that was just about it from
Wayne and Garth.
Will there ever be a Wayne's World 3?
Here's an "extreme close-up" on why it'll never happen.
Get the net!
Sequel slump
Paramount Pictures, the studio behind Wayne's World, presumably lost a lot of interest in
a third installment after taking a look at the box office receipts for Wayne's World
2.
While it certainly has its funny and memorable moments, it didn't quite capture the magic
of the original.
Critics thought it was fine, but not as good as the first Wayne's World… and it only
made $47 million at the domestic box office, which was far less impressive than the original's
$121 million take.
"No stairway.
Denied."
It all added up to a lack of evident demand for Wayne's World 3, and Hollywood wasn't
going to put up the tens of millions of dollars required to make it happen.
Sister slowdowns
After the phenomenal success of Wayne's World, a slew of full-length movies based on Saturday
Night Live sketches and characters were released.
And not one of them managed to come anywhere near the box office bucks the first Wayne's
World earned.
Coneheads, It's Pat, Stuart Saves His Family, Blues Brothers 2000, A Night at the Roxbury,
Superstar, and The Ladies Man were all SNL-inspired duds that made a combined total of $111 million
in theaters—less than Wayne's World amassed by itself.
The sub-genre died until 2010, when Will Forte's MacGyver send-up MacGruber hit theaters…and
bombed.
So, overall, there just hasn't been much of a demand for movies based on sketches people
can watch at home for free, and that includes more Wayne's World.
Getting busy
The late '90s or early '00s would've been the right time to strike quickly with another
Wayne's World movie, but Mike Myers was simply too busy with other projects.
After Wayne's World 2, Myers regrouped and came up with another over-the-top, irresistible
character: Austin Powers, a British spy straight out of a candy-colored '60s British spy movie.
"Yeah, baby, yeah!"
The first movie in the series, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, was a modest
hit, but built up such a huge home video following that the 1999 sequel Austin Powers: The Spy
Who Shagged Me made more than $200 million at the box office.
The third movie, 2002's Austin Powers in Goldmember, did even better.
Making those movies, along with voicing the main character in the Shrek series and taking
roles in films like 54 and Mystery, Alaska, didn't leave a lot of time for Myers to do
much else.
Family feud
The success of Austin Powers can be partially blamed for why there was never a third Wayne's
World movie.
The character of Dr. Evil parodied several James Bond villains, particularly the similar-looking
Blofeld of You Only Live Twice.
But his clipped speaking voice, distant demeanor, and some physical mannerisms—including extending
his pinky finger while talking—may have also been inspired by Dana Carvey's around-the-studio
impression of their old SNL boss, Lorne Michaels.
"That thing, and then when I saw Mike do it I did kind of go mmmm."
That, along with other issues, drove a wedge between the two actors, who didn't speak for
years as a result of their tiff.
Happily, they've since made up and have appeared at Wayne's World screenings and on SNL together.
Health matters
Carvey wasn't physically available to make Wayne's World 3 when it would've most logically
entered production, sometime in the mid-to-late-'90s.
Nor was he able to do much work at all—he had some major health problems.
Experiencing chest pains, Carvey went to a doctor, where it was discovered that blood
wasn't properly flowing to his heart.
"Hey, come here, come here, look at this x-ray.
Your heart looks like a pig's a------ look at that thing.
Carvey underwent several operations to correct the disorder, including a botched operation
where his doctor fixed the wrong artery, but has since made a full recovery.
Not interested
Probably the biggest reason why Wayne's World 3 has never happened is that Mike Myers doesn't
seem to want to do it all that much.
In 2008, Myers and Dana Carvey appeared as Wayne and Garth at the MTV Movie Awards, leaving
many fans to wonder if a third big-screen outing was in the offing, but Myers said he
did it mainly to get "caught up" with his old friend Carvey.
Three years later, Carvey hosted Saturday Night Live and brought in Myers for a "Wayne's
World" sketch.
That reportedly sparked something in Myers, because in 2012 sources reported that he'd
written a screenplay for Wayne's World 3.
But Myers' team sent out a notice to refute it all, claiming he hadn't completed a script…nor
was he even working on one.
Myers and Carvey played Wayne and Garth again for the SNL 40 special in 2015—and once
again, it sparked movie rumors that Myers good-naturedly shrugged off.
When asked by The Canadian Press if there were more Wayne's World films in the future,
he said he was open to the idea, but that we shouldn't hold our breath, explaining,
"It would be an interesting examination of Wayne at 50.
I don't know what it would look like, but the idea of it makes me laugh and Dana and
I had a blast at the 40th anniversary, so I don't know."
"We're not worthy!
We're not worthy!"
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