When you think about some of the bigger, more commercially successful films made by the legendary directing brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, known as the Coen Brothers, titles like Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Raising Arizona, and The Big Lebowski generally pop to mind. Before they made a name for themselves with a spate of remarkably memorable movies, they were still experimenting with the surreal and quirky nature of their characters and storylines. Barton Fink is one of the filmmaker duo’s lesser-known films just seven years into their careers that began with their feature debut Blood Simple. It was made in 1991 and the lead role was written with John Turturro in mind to play the titular character.

The story of the New York playwright who heads out to Los Angeles to write a B-movie in the mid-1940s has the feel of the directors starting to truly establish their footing as creators who are difficult to categorize. While each one of their movies has a heavy amount of satirical commentary and a singular arthouse feel in the style of Wes Anderson, they are not definable by genre. Barton Fink is the quintessential example of how the Coen Brothers have made a career out of standalone offerings that are only connected by their larger-than-life misfit characters and the handful of performers that portray them (think Turturro, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Frances McDormand, and George Clooney). And one thing the Coens have never done is make a sequel. So what is with the buzz around making a second Barton Fink movie some 30-plus years after the original?

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Why ‘Barton Fink’ Deserves a Sequel

Fink is a quiet, meticulous man by nature, who takes great pride in the art of expression through writing (He feels very much like a noirish send-up by the Coens of the misdirected idolization of writers.) So when he is struck with a crippling case of writer’s block as he unpacks his bags in sunny Hollywood and runs into a series of mysterious, Coen-esque oddballs and eccentrics that stay in the Earle Hotel, he enters into disillusionment and a full-blown existential crisis. It’s a beautiful film marked by a masterful screenplay and the deft performances of Turturro, Goodman, Tony Shaloub, and Judy Davis.

The biggest reason the Coens never make sequels is that they rarely allow for loose ends. They tell a story from beginning to middle to end. They are allegories doused with irony, parables unique unto themselves each earmarked for a particular time and space. And they’re chock-full of characters who were never meant to make encores. Even though we’d love to see what H.I. McDunnough is up to these days or exactly what kind of misadventures Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski has stumbled into, we shudder to think of a reprisal somehow tarnishing their cinematic legacies. So what is different about Barton Fink, and who is flaming their cigarette lighter for more of him?

A Possible ‘Barton Fink’ Sequel

Image via 20th Century Fox

In a 2016 interview with Variety, the brothers made the surprising admission about bringing back Turturro’s character for another run with Ethan saying, “We’re going to do a ‘Barton Fink’ sequel at some point.” And brother, Joel added, “That’s the one movie that we thought deserved a sequel, called ‘Old Fink.’ But we don’t want to do it until Turturro is quite old. He’s getting there.” So how old do they want their muse to be exactly? Here we are in 2023 and Turturro, the 66-year-old man who has collaborated with the directors no less than four times, isn’t getting any younger, and while entertaining, Barton Fink is not one of their most memorable characters in the way that McDunnough, Lebowski, Marge Gunderson, and Anton Chigurh are. In fact, Turturro has been pleading with them to bring back another one of his characters, Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski for a spinoff. But apparently, the Coens aren’t biting on bringing back the nimbly flamboyant trash-talking bowler any time soon. It seems like a Fink sequel is much more likely than a Quintana one as we’re pretty sure that the Turturro isn’t nearly as spry as he was for the role in 1998.

So What’s the Latest on the ‘Barton Fink’ Sequel?

Image via 20th Century Fox

As much as the filmmaking siblings want to bring Barton Fink back to the big screen, it doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon. In 2018, after wrapping The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the Coens decided to go their separate ways – at least for the time being. They discussed some of the reasons why Ethan decided to take a break from their decades-long career together attributing some of it to the pandemic of 2020, as Ethan noted in 2022, “None of the decisions are definitive. We might make another movie. I don’t know what my next movie is going to be after this. I turned into a big baby and got bored and quit, and then the pandemic happened. Then other stuff happens and who knows?” He went on to discuss how the working relationship needed a break after so long, “You start out when you’re a kid, and you want to make a movie. Everything’s enthusiasm and gung-ho, let’s go make a movie. And the first movie is just loads of fun. And then the second movie is loads of fun, almost as much fun as the first. And after 30 years, not that it’s no fun, but it’s more of a job than it had been… It was the experience of making a movie. More of a grind and less fun.” Apparently, Even the greatest auteurs can suffer some form of burnout.

Is a Coen Brothers Reunion Still Possible?

Image via 20th Century Fox

While the news that the brothers are taking a bit of a breather from each other is understandable, it’s no less disappointing, as we love their films (and we mean all 18 of them – except for maybe one or two ahem, Ladykillers). But, the silver lining is that Ethan is still open to reuniting with Joel, and we are heartened by the fact that if they ever do decide to do a sequel, it will be of the angst-riddled writer, Barton Fink, and his typewriter. So we are positively not slamming the door shut on “Old Man Fink” even if it isn’t official, or they haven’t written a word of dialogue for it yet. And it’s not like either of them is even close to calling it quits as Joel just finished a film for A24 Studios called Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind just last year that he partnered on with his longtime wife, Tricia Cooke.