Culture
09 Nov 16

Irvine Welsh suggests Trainspotting might get a spin-off series

Having just released the trailer for Trainspotting 2 last week, Welsh suggested that a new show following the infamous Edinburgh skagboys could be forthcoming.

Trainspotting 2 – officially billed as T2 Trainspotting – is based on Welsh’s sequel book Porno and will see the original cast of the 1996 movie, including stars Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle, team up again with director Danny Boyle. It will be released on January 27, 2017 in the UK and Ireland.

Welsh published Skagboys in 2012, a prequel to Trainspotting. This year, he published The Blade Artist, which focuses on Trainspotting character Begbie.

Asked by NME if we could expect any further adaptations involving the Trainspotting characters, Welsh replied: “Basically, I’ve plans for them all. All in various kind of schedules or adaptations.”

“It’s all ruling on cable TV, cable TV has some interesting developments,” he added. “We’re working on all these different kind of things.”

“I think now anybody who’s in the book, whether the like it or not, they’re working on the way of being in the film. You keep that in mind. As soon as you’ve written it, you’re thinking about how it can move into different mediums.”

Speaking to NME about whether he had any reservations about making a sequel to such a beloved movie, Welsh said: “We were all nervous before we decided to do it… [but] once we saw the script, everybody was confident that we were certainly not going to trash the legacy of the first film and that we were going to build on it.”

“It has managed to take the most dynamic elements of the [Trainspotting] book and Porno [Trainspotting sequel book, on which T2 is partially based] but also look forward to how it can be contemporary and present day… In some ways, I think it’s a better movie [than Trainspotting]… They have become such iconic characters and this is going to cement that status even more.”

“It feels like a big epic movie,” Welsh went on to say. “I’m very, very excited about it and I think people are going to be excited [too]. You’ll always get the critics who moan about it not being the original Trainspotting movie or being too much like it… [but] it’s going to be a great film, a great standalone film but also work with the first film as well to bring that whole world together.”

Here's the trailer to T2: