Spinal Tap II, a direct sequel to legendary rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, has been announced.

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The 1984 film, which produced numerous quotable scenes – including exploding drummers, “it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever” and amps that “go up to 11″ – will now see its 40th anniversary marked with more tales of rock cliché and questionable song titles.

Reiner will direct the sequel and return as filmmaker Marty DiBergi, while David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) also return to perform as the brash English band.

“The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, ‘Why don’t you do another one?’” Reiner told Deadline following the announcement.

“For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honour the first one and push it a little further with the story.”

Shearer, McKean and Guest have previously toured as Spinal Tap in real life, and Reiner explained that their recent lack of time together inspired the premise for the sequel.

 

“The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra passed away. Ian’s widow inherited a contract that said Spinal Tap owed them one more concert. She was basically going to sue them if they didn’t. All these years and a lot of bad blood that we’ll get into, and they’re thrown back together and forced to deal with each other and play this concert.”

The director also said that many of the original’s scenes were inspired by real events, and that he intends to include “guest appearances” from bands who’ve had similar misadventures over the years. “We’ve had a lot of bands share their experiences and so hopefully we’ll include some of that in the film,” he explained.

On his own returning role as the director who filmed the band in the original, Reiner said: “I’m back playing Marty DiBergi. The band was upset with the first film. They thought I did a hatchet job and this is a chance to redeem myself. I am such a big fan and I felt bad they didn’t like what they saw in the first film.

“When I heard they might get back together, I was a visiting adjunct teacher’s helper at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts. I drop everything to document this final concert.”

Spinal Tap II will be released March, 19 2024. You can watch the trailer for the original film above.

The news arrives just 10 days after Shearer broke the news that Ric Parnell, who played fictional drummer Mick Shrimpton in This Is Spinal Tap, had died at the age of 70.

In the film, Parnell’s character spontaneously combusts at the end, following a running gag that all of the group’s previously drummers have died the same way. The musician also performed on the movie’s soundtrack, as well as a follow-up album ‘Break Like The Wind’ which was released in 1992.