I Have 1 Request For The Grinch Sequel & Her Name Is Christine Baranski

From Freakier Friday to The Devil Wears Prada 2, it’s been a busy few years for sequels banking on early-aughts nostalgia. And now, a campy Christmas movie may be entering the chat.

On June 18, The Hollywood Reporter announced that a sequel to the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas is in development. Director Ron Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer — who teamed up on the original 2000 film — confirmed the news on Instagram, and Jim Carrey (the green man himself) is in talks to reprise his role, per THR.

As detailed in Vulture’s oral history of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for its 25th anniversary last year, the logistics of bringing the holiday tale to life were... a lot. Carrey said that after his first day getting into Grinch makeup took a whopping eight hours, and he came very close to leaving the production altogether. “He was ready to give his $20 million back! I mean, he was sincere,” Howard recalled.

But the filmmaker added the team “fleetingly toyed” with a sequel in the years that followed and assured Carrey that he wouldn’t have to wear all that makeup, nor the extreme contact lenses that Howard recalled gave the actor a “kind of claustrophobia.”

On a potential sequel, Howard noted, “We would still have exactly the same look because we have so much film to work with of him in the makeup that we could solve that digitally.”

And despite the discomfort he went through while filming, Carrey looked back on his role fondly. “Though it was a struggle, it’s such an honor to have been that character,” he told Vulture. “It’s just the most beautiful story in the world, how badly we need people to open their hearts. It’s always going to get you. Many of us are walking around with a desiccated heart right now.”

There aren’t any details on what the Grinch sequel might look like story-wise, or its cast. (Taylor Momsen, who played Cindy Lou Who, has generally stepped away from acting in favor of her music.) But if the film can bring back any familiar faces in addition to Carrey, Christine Baranski’s Martha May Whovier ought to be one of them.

Martha May’s love for the Grinch is a key piece of the film’s heart — and I need to know what they’re up to nearly three decades later. (And also... any excuse to see more of her ultra-glamorous holiday ensembles.)

In a 2025 interview with Vanity Fair, Baranski shared that How the Grinch Stole Christmas remains one of the films she is most often approached for while out and about — adding that when her grandsons learned she starred in the movie, “My stock went up as a grandma.”