Goldie Hawn’s Unfinished Business: The Sequel That Never Was
Goldie Hawn’s early Oscar win and string of hit films made her a Hollywood icon, but despite the runaway success of First Wives Club, repeated efforts to reunite the cast for a sequel fell apart over pay and script disputes.
Settle in for a festive film night and you might find yourself drawn to The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix, where the dynamic between Santa and Mrs Claus is unmistakably genuine. That’s hardly surprising, given the roles are played by real-life partners Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Their on-screen rapport is as warm as a roaring fire, and it’s a reminder of Hawn’s remarkable journey from dancer to Oscar-winning actress.
Hawn’s career began with a stint as a dancer, followed by a role on the comedy programme Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Her breakthrough came in 1969, starring opposite Walter Matthau in Cactus Flower. The film, a lively comedy with a rather dark opening, also featured Ingrid Bergman and was well received by critics and audiences alike. Hawn’s performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination, a Bafta nod, and, most notably, an Academy Award, which she won in a surprise victory over strong contenders such as Sylvia Miles and Susannah York.
From Oscar Glory to Hollywood Mainstay
Despite her early triumph, Hawn’s career didn’t immediately soar to the heights some might have expected. Over the next decade, she appeared in a series of modestly budgeted films, including Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express and the comedy Shampoo with Warren Beatty, the latter earning her another Golden Globe nomination. Her role in Private Benjamin in 1980 brought her a second Oscar nomination and marked the beginning of her most prolific period. For the next fifteen years, she became a fixture in the industry, starring alongside Kurt Russell in Overboard, Mel Gibson in Bird on a Wire, and Bruce Willis in Death Becomes Her.
The First Wives Club Phenomenon
In 1996, Hawn joined forces with Bette Midler and Diane Keaton for First Wives Club, a film that would become one of her most beloved. The story, centred on three women seeking retribution after being left for younger partners, struck a chord with audiences and proved a box office sensation, grossing $180 million on a modest budget. Yet, as Hawn later revealed, the film’s success did not guarantee a straightforward path to a sequel.
“First Wives Club. We were all women of a certain age, and everyone took a cut in salary to do it so the studio could make what it needed. We all took a smaller back end than usual and a much smaller front end. And we ended up doing incredibly well.”
She added,
“The movie was hugely successful. It made a lot of money. We were on the cover of Time magazine. But two years later, when the studio came back with a sequel, they wanted to offer us exactly the same deal. We went back to ground zero.”
Attempts at a Sequel and Unresolved Endings
Multiple efforts were made to bring a follow-up to First Wives Club to life. The first attempt in 2004 faltered when the three leads and the studio could not agree on fees. Another try in 2016, this time with Netflix, was abandoned due to dissatisfaction with the script. A final project in 2020, which would have reunited Hawn, Midler, and Keaton, was ultimately shelved before Keaton’s untimely passing.