Matilda Star Addresses Potential for Sequel to Beloved ’90s Movie, Revealing a Problem With Fans’ Biggest Idea

Based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name, the 1996 movie Matilda captivated audiences with its compelling titular lead, a spunky little girl who is wise beyond her years but has parents who not only don’t appreciate her but also horribly mistreat her. It is because of these circumstances that Matilda (Mara Wilson) develops magic powers. While the movie is funny at various points, and young Wilson is brilliant and adorable in the role, Matilda is also a fairly dark tale about, essentially, a little girl growing up and trying to survive intense abuse at both home and school.

For many ‘90s kids in particular, this story therefore became a beacon of hope, especially because, in the end, Matilda ends up being adopted by her angelic teacher, Miss Honey, and she gets to live out the rest of her childhood in a happy, safe home. With such a happily-ever-after-style ending, it’s not a huge surprise that, although there has since been a musical adaptation of the movie, Matilda never got a sequel. Now, the star of the original film, Mara Wilson, has weighed in on this possibility directly, and her take on the topic is absolutely right.

Mara Wilson Is Right About Matilda 2

Notably, Dahl’s book itself never had a sequel, although the absence of source material for a follow-on movie certainly doesn’t mean that the possibility is off the table. According to Wilson, this is actually something she is frequently asked about. Per People, during a recent panel at the Fanboy Expo in Knoxville, Wilson said, “People always ask me about doing a Matilda 2, and that could be possible…But one thing that people always say is, ‘Oh, maybe it could be Matilda’s daughter.’ And I have some issues with that, because I think Matilda’s powers come from her adversity.”

This is, in fact, something that comes directly from the book (and is also implied in the movie), as Matilda discovers her powers during sequences in which she is being yelled at or mistreated. Once she is adopted by Miss Honey, she no longer has much use for her powers, and they fade with time. For Wilson, that means that, were a potential Matilda 2 to focus on Matilda’s daughter, it wouldn’t make sense for her to have any such powers—and she’s absolutely right.

For either Matilda or a possible daughter of Matilda’s to have these powers, the logic of the original story would require hardship or suffering. While there are potentially ways for that to work at least in terms of a logical narrative, it’s difficult to imagine any scenario in which this wouldn’t undermine Matilda and the beautiful, well-deserved ending that both the book and the movie gave to the little girl. A true “happily ever after” may not exist in the real world, but it was the perfect conclusion to her story, and that shouldn’t be disrupted.

The same article stated that, during that panel, Wilson also expressed doubts about the possibility of Matilda finding someone to marry who is actually good enough for her. While that’s a more debatable conversation, the point remains that a sequel to Matilda would almost certainly undo the perfect ending she already got, and it would not only feel like a betrayal to that character but also would risk hurting the audiences who loved the story of a little girl who survived abuse and found real peace and happiness in the end.

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