Wait, Is The Holiday Actually Getting A Sequel?

Before rom-com movies spent a decade being pretty much out of fashion, one of the last significant hits of the genre was The Holiday. The 2006 film, directed by Nancy Meyers, starred Kate Winslet as Iris, Jude Law as her brother Graham, Cameron Diaz as Amanda, and Jack Black as Amanda’s colleague Miles. The foursome ends up happily ever after, but with the rom-com revival of the 2020s in full swing, fans have been hopeful to revisit their story in a The Holiday sequel. But is one actually happening?

Someone in Hollywood clearly thought so. According to the U.K. tabloid The Sun, a source claimed a sequel was heading this way, with all four members of the original cast signed on and production scheduled to begin filming in 2023. According to The Sun, this source claimed “the plan is to start rolling on scenes next year, primarily in the U.K. and in Europe, but the main talent are all signed up and on board.”

A sequel nearly 20 years on isn’t really out of the ordinary these days. Revivals, reboots, and re-imaginings have dominated the landscape in recent years, especially of fan-faves that have stood the test of time. The Holiday is a TV staple on both basic cable and streaming during the winter months, the kind of film people both seek out and also stop to watch when they randomly stumble across it.

There’s just one small problem: It’s probably not happening any time soon. After The Sun’s report came out, Meyers took to Instagram to refute the story. “So many DMs about this — sorry but it’s not true,” she wrote.

As much as fans would love The Holiday 2, the facts were already against it as a project, even before Meyers debunked the story. For one thing, Winslet’s schedule is already full of projects for the next year, most of which she’s executive producing. Also, Diaz retired from acting almost a decade ago, and although she’s recently agreed to a comeback, the projects she’s reportedly been considering are streaming, not theatrical. Further, Jude Law is in the middle of filming Peter Pan & Wendy and a new TV series called Skeleton Crew, and Jack Black is gearing up for more Kung Fu Panda, making them both booked and busy as well.

It sounds like this fantasy of a sequel to The Holiday was just that — a fantasy. Perhaps one day it will come true, but for now, the 2006 original is all fans have. It’s currently streaming on demand.