Sequels are a tough gambit. For every The Godfather Part II, there are dozens of sequels as abysmal as Staying Alive, the Saturday Night Fever follow-up. 

Fans of rock 'n' roll mockumentaries can rest assured that Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be seemingly Travolta-free. Even more exciting is that the movie will feature cameos from music superstars like Paul McCartney, Elton John, and Trisha Yearwood. 

Rob Reiner will once again be at the helm, as he was with the 1984 original. Most of the key players will return as well, with Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest reprising their roles from This is Spinal Tap. The main difference between the sequel and its prelude will, of course, be the forty years that passed between the two.

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To best explain what will make the sequel great, it's important to understand what made the first movie so special to begin with.

Director Rob Reiner presented a four-page outline to film executives. The movie (both in that pre-production stage and also as it was made) didn't have a script. The action and dialogue were to be completely improvised. The cast and creators had a few jokes planned, but even they were filmed off-the-cuff, giving the project a realistic, documentary-like feel.

However, the whole endeavor nearly failed to launch, as nobody in Hollywood thought it could succeed. It was saved by Reiner's old boss from All in the Family, Norman Lear, who decided to back the project, providing the crew with a budget of $2 million.

“Norman was the first guy to recognize that I had a sense of humor, and he’s been my champion for a long time,” Reiner told Today in 2023.

“[He] got me started in my directing career. I’ve said many times he’s like a second father to me. I’ve been very lucky to have him as a role model, along with my own father.”

Lear, along with Reiner's father Carl, played an influential role in what would become a legendary career, both in comedy and in directing.

“What I got from them was just being around them and seeing how they conducted their lives. That’s the best advice I got. I saw how my dad conducted his career, how he treated other people. I saw how Norman used what he had and his strength that he had of his convictions, to stick to his guns and not back down from what he believed. Those are the pieces of advice that I got from both of them.”

So, what can fans expect from the new Spinal Tap? Most importantly, they can know that the movie was made for the right reasons.

“For years, everybody kept saying, ‘You should do a Spinal Tap 2. You should do another one.’ And none of us ever wanted to do it because it’s not like you just do something. We have to have an idea of something that would make you want to do it,” said Reiner.

“And we did come up with an idea that we liked. And everything spoke from the idea. It’s not like, ‘Ooh, let’s do a Spinal Tap 2."

While any sequel can be tricky, this one is particularly fraught, at least for the filmmakers involved. The original was a landmark and sparked an entire genre of mockumentary imitators. Reiner knows he has to be very careful with his approach.

“We were very nervous about doing a second one because it (has) become a classic, a cult classic, and it’s in the National Film Registry, which is a big honor,” he says.

“And so sometimes you say, ‘I don’t want to touch that.’ But I think we have a way of doing it that will be different and hopefully, people will enjoy it.”