Why oh why would the studio even try to bring out a Doctor Sleep 2? This would be lunacy on a very costly level, especially since Doctor Sleep, despite being highly anticipated, has bombed out thus far at the box office. People can blame whoever they want for this development but quite honestly the story is a great one and is one of those that you can’t help but think should have found its way down the pipeline a while back. Maybe then, before the rise of the comic book movies and other various ideas, it might have actually been able to compete. But then again it’s likely that it wouldn’t have found the right director or the right cast. As Ryan Scott of MovieWeb says though, this is an idea that will likely be shelved for quite some time to come since the idea of making another movie that will bomb is less than appealing to anyone at this juncture. More than that, creating another sequel that seems as though it would be based on Dick Hallorann, the man that taught Dan Torrance about the Shining, is highly uncharted territory that would be headed off into a part of this world that no one has ever seen before. In fact it’s hard to say if Stephen King, the creator of Doctor Sleep and The Shining, would even be involved.
This isn’t to say that it might be the worst idea in the world, but if there’s going to be another movie that has anything to do with The Shining then it really needs to be its own entity and erase the whole idea of Doctor Sleep from its title. If that was the plan in the first place then its a step in the right direction, but a lot of studios understand at this point, or should at least, that too many people are bound to return to the familiar movies and ideas that they know something about largely because they’re comfortable and won’t challenge what they know to be true within the story. But the idea seems to be that Hallorann might actually delve deeper into the man that made Danny aware of his abilities, and if that’s the case then it could actually work, so long as there are some familiar elements that were brought to bear. For instance, think about a man like Hallorann working at the Overlook for so long. Think about all the things he probably saw, experienced, and had to endure. Now think that maybe the True Knot might have something to do with his story, perhaps even before Danny was born. There are a few different possibilities that could be taken into account concerning Dick’s story, but it really needs to leave Danny out of it if there’s be any chance of success. King’s stories tend to operate better when there’s something linking them together but they can still stand on their own feet as it were. Stories such as IT and The Stand and even Mr. Mercedes do in fact need continuation and solid links between one part of the story and the next since they are essentially the same story. But with The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and the simple idea of Hallorann it would need to be certain that each story belongs in the same universe, but each one also stands alone, albeit with several threads to connect them in a very tantalizing and meaningful way.
How great would it be to see a young Dick Hallorann coming to realize his own abilities and to have to deal with the Overlook from the start, as we know from The Shining that he’s already mastered his ability and is likely able to deal with the ghosts quite easily. Plus, if the True Knot was mentioned or at least used in part for this movie it might actually spice it up a bit. But the fact is that the studio isn’t too enthusiastic about taking another hit like this so soon, so it’s not likely that we’ll be seeing the movie come out in the near or even far-flung future until it’s certain that the profits will be there and the movie will be better received. In fact it might have been better if Doctor Sleep had been released on Netflix instead and been lauded as another step forward in promoting one of King’s more popular stories. Perhaps reaching too far for the profits is becoming a habit that too many individuals are guilty of these days, since obviously the current trend on the big screen is action, action, action, and course some drama but action all the same. The Joker movie might have something to say about this, but at the same time it’s hard to argue that the movie is benefiting from the idea that it came from the comics, and was expected to be a demented look into the life of an individual that was meant to be anything but a comic book villain. Jacob Robinson of What’s on Netflix has his own input to add as well.
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