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There Was Almost a ‘Forrest Gump’ Sequel & You’ll Never Guess Which Celebs Were Supposed to Make Cameos

There are many ways that Forrest Gump could be turned into a sequel, but we never thought it would involve Princess Diana and O.J. Simpson.

Eric Roth, who wrote the screenplay for Forrest Gump, recently sat down for an interview with Yahoo!, where he revealed that he had once been developing a sequel to the hit 1994 film. Unlike the original movie, the follow-up would include a focus on Gump’s son, who was born with AIDS.

Since the sequel story line followed Gump as he experienced real-life events in the ’90s, it featured historical footage cameos by—you guessed it—Princess Diana and O.J. Simpson.

“I had him in the back of O.J.’s Bronco,” the screenwriter said, referring to the infamous car chase. “He would look up occasionally, but they didn’t see him in the rearview mirror, and then he’d pop down.”

Roth went on to explain how Gump crossed paths with Princess Di, adding, “I had him as a ballroom dancer who was really good, he could do the [rotation] ballroom dancing. And then eventually, just as sort of a charity kind of thing, he danced with Princess Diana.”

Although he completed a draft of the script, he vetoed the plans after September 11, 2001. “Literally, I turned it in the day before 9/11,” Roth added. “And Tom and I and Bob got together on 9/11 to sort of commiserate about how life was in America and how tragic it was. And we looked at each other and said, ‘This movie has no meaning anymore, in that sense.’”

But nearly ten years later, time to revive the idea?

Listen to ‘Royally Obsessed,’ the Podcast for People Who Love the Royal Family



greta

Senior Editor

Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...