However, this time, apparently these circumstances are different. In spite of Will Smith’s slap still being pretty fresh on everyone’s mind, Bright 2 being canceled by Netflix shortly after the incident is actually just a coincidence and nothing more.

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According to Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg, Netflix has ultimately decided not to move forward with production on Bright 2 regardless of whether Will Smith kept his hands to himself or not. Not many other details have been shared on the matter as of now, but more are bound to come out over time. For now, some will probably speculate that Netflix might be doing this in response to losing subscribers in the sense that, with people canceling their subscriptions, they may want to spend their money a little more wisely on projects that were either received better by audiences or turned a better profit for them. Bright 2 may not have done that for them.

Plus, in all honesty, was anyone asking for a sequel to this movie? It’s not like Bright exactly lit the world on fire upon its release on Netflix back in 2017. It was a creative idea to integrate mythical creatures into real-world circumstances, but evidently, audiences did not feel that the execution was well-done in spite of having big-name actors like Will Smith and Joel Edgerton in the movie. Bright currently has a 27 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and no one has thought much of the film since its release five years ago. Were audiences really going to tune into a sequel?

Whether they were going to or not, for the time being, audiences are not going to have Bright 2 in the near future. Yet another Will Smith vehicle has stopped, though apparently, it has nothing to do with the slap. Everything truly is going wrong for Will Smith right now, but while his actions were wrong, it feels like these canceled projects will only be temporary setbacks for him. No one knows how long this will last, but don’t be surprised if Will Smith makes the right PR moves to get his career back on track over the next year or so. If Mel Gibson can do it in spite of much worse actions, so can Will Smith.

The bigger headline here just might be about Netflix making this choice more than Smith having another project canceled. Once upon a time, Netflix was ahead of the game as a streaming service, so perhaps back in 2017, they were more than happy to role with projects like Bright. However, with streaming services like HBO Max and Disney Plus coming into the fold, not only is Netflix no longer ahead, but they might be behind now. So now they have to be cautious with where they use their money. Don’t be surprised if we see more surprise cancellation on Netflix’s end.

Bright can currently be watched on Netflix.

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Source: Lucas Shaw/Twitter