‘See You Yesterday’ Director Doesn’t Want to Make a Sequel: “I Like it When a Story Ends”

Warning: Major spoilers for Netflix’s See You Yesterday. Save this article for sometime after you watch the film!

If you watched See You Yesterday, a new teen time travel film produced by Spike Lee, on Netflix this weekend, you’re probably asking yourself: When is the See You Yesterday sequel coming out?! The answer, according to director Stefon Bristol—who also wrote the script along with Fredrica Bailey—is probably never. Sorry!

A quick recap for those who didn’t heed the spoiler warning on this article: See You Yesterday ends on a massive cliffhanger. The film follows two black teenage geniuses named C.J. and Sebastian (played by actors Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow), who create a time machine and attempt to use it to stop C.J.’s older brother Calvin (actor/rapper Brian “Stro” Bradley) from being shot and killed by a police officer. (If you think that time travel and the epidemic of police killing black people is an odd mix,  trust us, it works.)

By the film’s end, C.J. has time-traveled to the day of her brother’s death three times. On the first attempt, she and Sebastian fail to get to the sight of the shooting on time. On the second attempt, C.J. saves her brother, but her rash actions end up killing Sebastian. On the third attempt, C.J. gets Sebastian back, but her brother, once again, ends up dead. At this point, Sebastian decides that he can’t risk his or anyone else’s life again, and declares that they should stop trying to change the past. But C.J. refuses to give up on her brother. She tells Sebastian she loves him, and time travels, once more, to the day of her brother’s death: July 4, 2019. She runs down the street. Cue the dramatic music and slow motion and then… the film ends. Just like that!

I immediately scrolled ahead in the credits. Surely there was going to be an after credits scene? But all I found was the logo screen for Spike Lee’s production company. Naturally, my next move was to reach out to Bristol and demand an explanation. Just kidding. Kind of. But the director did kindly agree to hop on a call with Decider and explained why he made the choice.

“I didn’t want the film to be wrapped up in a bow. I didn’t give a clear answer about what happened, or let you know if the brother died or not,” Bristol said. “Often times when you have a tragic movie with a happy ending, people are like, ‘Well, all’s well that ends well.’ I don’t want that. I want the audience to be uncomfortable. I want the audience to have their own interpretation of what’s happening with our country.”

He also declined to share his own interpretation of the film, because, he said, “If I give my own idea about what the ending is, and people find out ‘Oh, well the director says this,” then that’s the end-all-be-all of the conversation, and I don’t want that.'” Someone should tell the Russo Brothers that!

Bristol went on to say that wasn’t the only ending he considered.  “We threw ideas back and forth on how to end the movie all around, [but] this ending was the best ending we could come up with it, [and] me, my co-writers and my two lead actors pushed for it. We had a lot of test screenings, and the response [to the ending] was a mixed bag. There were people who loved the ending and thought it was perfect, and there were people who wanted to fight with me after the ending.”

It’s an ending that’s not dissimilar to the cliffhanger that ends the most famous time travel film of all time, 1985’s Back to the Future—a film that See You Yesterday references so heavily it even features a cameo from its star, Michael J. Fox, saying “Great Scott!” Back to the Future hardly came to a tidy conclusion: Doc Brown shows up in his famous time-traveling car and tells Marty (Fox) they need to get to the year 2015, stat. When Marty comments that they won’t have enough road to get the machine up to the necessary 88 miles per hour, Doc responds with the now-famous line: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!” The words “TO BE CONTINUED…” appear on the screen, and the film ends. And believe it or not, director Robert Zemeckis originally intended the film as a standalone movie—the TBC card was added after the fact. Interestingly, Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot recently did an episode about time travel and police shootings that also ended on a cliffhanger.

Bristol said his ending was not an intentional nod to Back to the Future. He also, unlike Zemeckis who went on to helm two more Back to the Future films, seemed firmly against the idea of a See You Yesterday sequel.

“I am thinking about moving on my life and making new art,” Bristol said with a laugh, when asked if he was thinking about a sequel. “Making another movie. I personally like when a story ends. And that’s all I’m gonna say!”

Well, one more thing: “I hope black people love it. I made it for black people. I made it for people in the hood. Let’s keep making movies.”

Stream See You Yesterday on Netflix