Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston reunite at long last for Murder Mystery 2, which sees the Spitzes jetting off to a private island. This time, the mystery-comedy is being helmed by writer, producer, and director Jeremy Garelick (The Wedding Ringer) who spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about taking the reins on Netflix’s unexpected sequel, which he tells us he’s down to film 10 more of! Sandler and Aniston in a Murder Mystery franchise? Count us in.

Four years since their European debacle, Nick (Sandler) and Audrey (Aniston) Spitz are struggling to get their own private eye agency recognized. Having solved their first mystery, how hard could it be? When the couple is invited to a luxurious wedding by none other than The Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar), that very question is put to the test. The Spitzes set off to a private island, where a new crop of suspects – er, guests – are ready to party. Soon, however, The Maharajah is taken hostage, and it’s up to Nick and Audrey to sort through the clues and the mayhem. Murder Mystery 2 also features Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, John Kani, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jillian Bell, and more.

During their 1-on-1, which you can watch in the player above or read below, Garelick discusses how Sandler and Aniston are “great playing off of each other,” in what ways the script was designed for the two of them, and shares inspiration for the opening recap and the reason behind that cliffhanger ending. He teases the sequel’s huge dance number, talks about working on set with second unit directors J.J. Perry and Spiro Razatos on the action-packed sequences, and tells us a little bit about the abandoned high school he purchased for his production company, American High.

COLLIDER: I'm curious, how did you decide on the way to recap the first movie at the beginning because there's a little bit of a recap? Did you ever debate not having that, or were you like, “People see a lot of movies, let's remind them.”?

JEREMY GARELICK: Yeah, I think it was in post, it was in post-production where we wanted to make sure that even if you didn't see the first one, you can understand where you're coming from. We like the idea of the old TV shows, playing it like The Odd Couple type of a thing, or The A-Team. It felt like, you know, “We're just catching you up, in case you missed it!” So that was how we made that decision.

Speaking of post, I'm fascinated by the editing process because it's where it all comes together. What did you learn from early test screenings, or friends and family screenings, that actually impacted the film?

GARELICK: The first time we put it in front of an audience, we learned that people really loved the movie. It was amazing to sit in an audience and watch people laugh and enjoy the film, and everyone loved Adam and Jen. We get feedback on things in terms of pacing or certain jokes that we were testing, and they worked. We watched the audience's reaction, so if there's a joke and there's no laughter, we have one of 35 alts that we put in, and that's basically what we did.

I think Adam and Jennifer together...they're very good. Their chemistry is what makes these movies. Can you talk about what it's like on set with them? How much is it the script, how much is it them, as you said, coming up with alts for a lot of scenes?

GARELICK: Well, a lot of the script is designed for them, written for them, but they're also putting a lot of– they're both producers, they're both writers, and they put a lot of their own voice into the script. So, by the time we get to set, they've already really processed and worked out a lot of the kinks, so a lot of the improv and the ideas that they had were already put into the scene.

Then, when we would get to set, you would get what was on the page and then they would add to it, and they play off, and they're so great playing off of each other, and they're so fun together. But we had a group of people who were on set writing alts, and we would have all these alt jokes that we would just try. We got some killers in there, which are in the movie, and it's fun.

I definitely have to ask you, no spoilers, but how did you decide on the ending? Because it's a little bit of a – what's the right word? – cliffhanger.

GARELICK: Yeah, I mean, we love the idea of doing a cliffhanger. Yeah, it was just–

Was that always in the script from the very beginning?

GARELICK: It was in a version of the script, but it was also– Actually, now that I think of it, we were actually planning on shooting a different scene for the ending, but because of COVID, the thing that we needed for that scene didn't get there in time. So we had to come up with a different idea. So I remember pitching this to Adam, this idea, and then we just kind of did a pass at the scene and it was fun. It was a fun way to end, and it definitely makes the audience wonder what's happening next, you know?

Well, the first film was incredibly successful for Netflix and clearly, I'm sure, if this is successful it wouldn't shock me if Netflix decided, “Maybe we want one more.”

GARELICK: I say let's do 10 more.

Yeah, I want to definitely ask about the wedding dance and filming that sequence because it's a huge number. There are amazing costumes, but the real thing is that I read – and I could be wrong – that you did not show Adam and Jennifer the dance until they got on set.

GARELICK: Correct. Because I wanted them to feel like the characters in the movie. Mahina and Avishai were the most incredible choreographers. We wanted to make sure that if we were doing an Indian wedding, we had a giant Bollywood dance, and we got the greatest team of dancers, choreographers. It was so fun to do that. We had our composers compose an incredible original song that we worked on for a long time, and yeah, I didn't want Adam and Jen to know what was gonna happen during the dance. They were winging it in their characters, they went method.

So when people watch, they should be watching their faces. I definitely want to touch on J.J. Perry, who's your second unit director. I believe he did the Eiffel Tower sequence. Can you talk about that sequence because it's a big, big stunt for this movie?

GARELICK: Huge. So, J.J. did the Eiffel Tower sequence, he did a lot of the fight sequences in there. Spiro [Razatos] did the car chase, the van chase sequence. We just had an incredible team of stunts and second-unit directors. J.J. is not only a great second-unit director, he's an incredible director. He directed Day Shift for Netflix, did a great job. Such an incredible energy, spirit, so fun to be around, and really protected everybody, made sure everyone was safe, but we had a really fun time.

I like asking directors, do you already know what you're thinking about doing next?

GARELICK: Right now I'm writing something for– I started a company called American High where I bought a high school to make high school films in upstate New York. I always loved high school movies, like all the John Hughes movies, and nobody was making them. So about five years ago, I bought an abandoned high school in upstate New York and started a company called American High, and we just make high school movies. We did Big Time Adolescence with Pete Davidson, we did The Binge with Vince Vaughn, Plan B with Kuhoo Verma who's in [Murdery Mystery 2]. So I'm working on another high school movie that we're gonna shoot in April.

Murder Mystery 2 is now streaming on Netflix.