Bradley Cooper says he’s down to do The Hangover 4.
When asked on The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast if he would ever return to comedic roles, the 48-year-old actor said, “I would probably do Hangover 4 in an instant. Just because I love Todd [Phillips], I love Zach [Galifianakis], I love Ed [Helms] so much, I probably would.”
However, Cooper isn’t completely sure if everyone would be willing to get a wolf pack reunion on the silver screen, at least not the films' original director. “I don’t think Todd’s ever going to do that,” he said, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Seven years after wrapping his Hangover trilogy, Philips scored three 2020 Oscar nominations for Joker—Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film nabbed 11 noms, winning Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Original Score for Hildur Guðnadóttir. Phillips has been entrenched in the Lady Gaga co-starring 2024 sequel Joker: Folie à Deux for the last couple years.
The first Hangover was released in 2009, and its depiction of three groomsmen navigating debauchery in Las Vegas quickly catapulted Cooper into being a household name and international heartthrob. The massive success of the first film launched two sequels in 2011 and 2013, with the second flick’s $488.7 million worldwide gross making it the biggest R-rated comedy of all time.
Cooper’s co-star Galifianakis, who in 2021 said his children would “never know” that he starred in The Hangover films, jokingly told Extra in September that he thinks a potential fourth film should be animated. “Maybe if they made it a Pixar version…a family-friendly version of it,” he said.
Another Hangover installment would break Cooper’s current streak of musical dramas which started with A Star is Born, opposite Lady Gaga. He's currently on the promotional trail for Maestro, the biopic of the late composer Leonard Bernstein, whose work includes the hit Broadway musical West Side Story. As with Star, Cooper directed, co-wrote, and stars in the project.
Over the summer the 48-year-old, who is of Irish-Italian descent, faced criticism for his use of a prosthetic nose as seen in the film’s trailer, which critics say perpetuates negative Jewish stereotypes. In response to the backlash, Bernstein’s children issued a statement in defense of Cooper, writing, “It happens to be true that Leonard Bernstein had a nice, big nose. Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance, and we're perfectly fine with that. We're also certain that our dad would have been fine with it as well.”
Maestro is currently playing in select theaters before hitting Netflix on Dec. 20.
