All Of The (Absolutely Wild) Nods To History That Were Meant To Feature In The Forrest Gump Sequel

The story of Forrest Gump, notable not just for Tom Hanks award-winning performance in the film but also for the nods to defining historical events, has seen more than a few demands for a sequel movie. Some may wish it to remain untouched by further adaptions for fear of ruining the sanctity of the cult-classic, and while this is a valid concern, the details of the what a sequel would look like are so wild they would peak any fans intrigue.

In an interview with Yahoo, the academy award winning screenwriter of the film Eric Roth spilled all of the details about the proposed sequel and explained why it was never made. Based on the original novel’s sequel, Gump and Co, the script was actually written in 2001. Roth noted that he ‘turned it in’ on 9th September that year, and the following day the 9/11 bombings occurred. After that tragedy, Roth stated that he, Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis all felt everything was ‘meaningless’.

‘Tom and I and Bob got together on 9/11 to sort of commiserate about how life was in America and how tragic it was,’ he said, ‘And we looked at each other and said, “This movie has no meaning anymore, in that sense.”’

Discussing the details of the sequel, he went on to answer one of the greatest question fans had following the first film and revealed all of the nods to history that would have been made throughout the plan. According to Roth, Forrest Gump’s son, Forrest Gump Junior, would have – as some fans hypothesised - contracted the HIV virus (spoilers ahead) from his mother.

‘It was gonna start with his little boy having AIDS,’ he said, ‘And people wouldn’t go to class with him in Florida. We had a funny sequence where they were [desegregation] busing in Florida at the same time, so people were angry about either the busing, or [their] kids having to go to school with the kid who had AIDS. So, there was a big conflict.’

Given the original film saw Gump jump from historical events of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, the sequel would also see both him and his son partake in some seminal moments in history. From dancing with Princess Diana to car-chasing with OJ Simpson, Forrest Gump 2 sounds like it would’ve taken us on a wild, emotional ride.

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‘I had him in the back of O.J.’s Bronco,’ he continued, referencing the 1994 police pursuit of OJ Simpson following his double-murder charge, ‘He would look up occasionally, but they didn’t see him in the rear-view mirror, and then he’d pop down.

‘I had him as a ballroom dancer who was really good, he could do the [rotation] ballroom dancing,’ he stated, ‘And then eventually, just as sort of a charity kind of thing, he danced with Princess Diana.’

His final detail of the movie also explains why, in the minds of him and his colleagues, the film would not have been well received were it to go ahead at the time.

‘He meets on a bus a Native American woman and finds his calling, as a bingo caller on a reservation,’ Roth explained, ‘And the big event in that, which you could see was diminished only in tragedy, I guess, because it’s the same tragedy, but every day he’d go wait for his Native American partner. She taught nursery school at a government building in Oklahoma City. And he was sitting on the bench waiting for her to have lunch and all of a sudden, the building behind him blows up… So, when 9/11 occurred … everything felt meaningless.’

It is certainly clear why the film was better left unmade, and ultimately saved them from would have been another problematic noughties nightmare. For fans who do wish to see adaptions of the film though, actor and director Aamir Khan has announced his new film Laal Singh Chadda is based on Forrest Gump. He told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) it will be a remake of the ‘life affirming story’, and will be released in 2020.