Election 2: Alexander Payne Reveals Current Status of Reese Witherspoon-Led Comedy

In a recent interview with Collider, Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne offered a new update regarding the current status of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming Election sequel Tracy Flick Can’t Win, which was first revealed back in December 2022. Payne confirmed that the sequel to 1999’s black comedy starring Reese Witherspoon is still currently in the early stages of development. However, The Descendants director admitted that he’s not quite sure when will the sequel take off since he still has other projects he wants to work on.

“Tom Perotta, who wrote the book Election, has written a very fine sequel, and Reese Witherspoon and I have talked about it. And Jim Taylor and I, my co-writer, have talked about doing it. But we just haven’t gotten to it yet,” Payne said. “It’s only because everything takes a while, and I have a couple things to do before that,” he says, “We’ll just see how it falls. It would be lovely to do.”

What will Election 2 be about?

“The Election sequel picks up with Tracy in adulthood as she continues to struggle to fight her way to the top at work,” reads the synopsis. “She’s the assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey, but she sets her sights on the top job as her boss announces plans to retire.”

Based on Tom Perrotta’s recently published follow-up novel, Tracy Flick Can’t Win will once again be directed by Election filmmaker Alexander Payne from a screenplay written by Jim Taylor. In the 1999 film, Tracy Flick was introduced as an overachiever who does everything she can to win the student body presidential elections.

On top of starring, Witherspoon is also serving as a producer through her Hello Sunshine production banner. Tracy Flick Can’t Win will be produced by Lauren Neustadter, Albert Berger, and Ron Yerxa, with Perrotta set to executive produce. It is being developed as a Paramount+ movie.