Luca Guadagnino’s multiple Oscar-nominee Call Me By Your Name doesn’t seem like an obvious choice for a sequel. It told a standalone tale, an adaptation of Andre Aciman’s romance novel about a summer of love in 1983 Northern Italy. Guadagnino has felt differently, though, and for months he’s been chatting about a potential sequel, or series of sequels, and now he’s revealed to Collider one crucial detail: when it will take place.
“I think the next chapter it will be happening right after the fall of Berlin wall and that great shift that was the end of Russia, of the USSR, sorry. And we’ll see people leaving home and going in the world. That’s what I can say for now.”
The Berlin Wall came down in ’89, so maybe that same year or perhaps 1990? That’s great and all, but this still sounds like a very bad idea. There’s tremendous potential to completely miss out on what made Call Me By Your Name work. While the romantic chemsitry between Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet was key, the Italian setting was just as much a factor. To change that, which it sounds like Guadagnino would do, might lead to a disappointing sequel. But if all three principles remain involved we could a beloved series of films on par with the Before Sunset trilogy.