A Recipe For Seduction 2: Will Lifetime Give Us A Sequel?
Between COVID-19, murder hornets, and Tiger King, 2020 has been a weird year. However, the announcement that Lifetime and KFC were teaming up to release A Recipe for Seduction — a 15-minute, hot and steamy mini-movie starring Mario Lopez as Colonel Sanders — ratcheted up that weirdness to unforeseen levels.
If you happen to love Lifetime movies, this parody flick covers the bases in record time, meaning it might just be your favorite movie of 2020. And if you hate Lifetime movies, well, given the tongue-in-cheek vibe of the whole thing, it still might be your favorite movie of 2020 (not that there's a ton of competition ... given, you know, COVID-19). The plot of this extended commercial, if you haven't heard, involves a woman named Jessica (Justene Alpert) who is being pressured by her mother into marrying her wealthy jerk boyfriend, Billy (Chad Dorek). Justene is already not digging this idea, and the heat is on when she meets the family's hunky new chef, Harlan Sanders (Mario Lopez), who proceeds to open his kitchen for a romance steamier than any spicy sauce on the Kentucky Fried Chicken menu.
Naturally, KFC and Lifetime are hoping that this experiment proves to be a big success — and the media attention that A Recipe for Seduction has already received is indicating that it will be. If so, then, the big question is this: could a sequel be on the way? And if so, where does the plot go from here?
The fried chicken only gets hotter (and crispier) from here
As it happens, fast food fans are already clamoring for a sequel on Twitter. Potential titles practically write themselves, with Food Network's John Henson proposing that a second film be titled A Recipe for Seduction 2: Extra Crispy. Luckily, the film itself ends in a way that leaves the door wide open for a sequel: After Sanders and Justene are married, her mother Bunny (Tessa Munro) is visited by the sinister Billy, implying that the two villains aren't going to play chicken (pun intended) with getting their revenge on the movie's central duo. So yes, loose threads have been left hanging.
Frankly, considering the level of attention the short film has gotten, the powers-that-be would be crazy not to follow it up, from a marketing perspective. After all, just look at how long Planter's has milked the whole "Baby Nut" thing, after they killed the original Mr. Peanut in truly cinematic fashion.
However, why stop there? Now that Lifetime has already cracked open this particular oven door, they might as well go all the way, and start baking an entire cinematic universe of corporate fast food icons into steamy romance storylines of one sort or another. Could Ronald McDonald be next? What about Chuck E. Cheese, or a horror-tinged take on the Burger King? For now, stay tuned.