IDW Announces ‘The Room 2: Roomier,’ the Comic Book Sequel to Tommy Wiseau’s Film
Over the past few years, IDW has become the premier publisher for licensed comics with properties like Ghostbusters, Star Trek, Godzilla, and Doctor Who under their belt, and today, they're getting even bigger with the huge announcement that they will be adapting Tommy Wiseau's groundbreaking film, The Room, into a five-issue comic book miniseries.
"The Room is a franchise with almost limitless potential," said IDW editor Irving D. Wilmore. "These are characters that have captured the imaginations of an entire generation, characters that we can really relate to. Who hasn't had their heart broken after a game of Rooftop Tuxedo Football?"
But IDW won't just be retelling the plot of Wiseau's film. The upcoming comic book, co-written by Wiseau and veteran Star Trek novelist Peter David, will be a completely original sequel called The Room 2: Roomier.
[Note: Spoilers for The Room Follow]The comic will explore all new corners of the rich tapestry of characters and stories introduced in the film. As Wilmore explained, "the great thing about The Room is how it effortlessly creates an entire world. There are numerous plot threads introduced in the movie that have absolutely no bearing on on Johnny, Lisa and Mark's love triangle, and are never addressed again. Those are what we're going to be dealing with in our comic. Have you ever wanted to know what happened with Lisa's mom's cancer, or how Chris-R got arrested for drugs? Now those stories can be told, exclusively here at IDW!"
Despite the fact that Wiseau has claimed The Room is definitely a comedy that is totally funny on purpose, Roomier looks to draw upon some of the more dramatic elements in the vein of IDW's hit Parker graphic novels by Darwyn Cooke, with the help of artist Chris Haley, best known for his work on the webcomic Let's Be Friends Again.
"It's really a story of revenge," says Wilmore. "Johnny returns to his apartment a year after the events of the movie, only to find that Mark and Lisa have become rich from the sale of his priceless collection of silverware photography. Now, Johnny wants his fork pictures back, and he's willing to tear through the San Francisco underworld to get them, and get his payback on the woman and friend who betrayed him."
Although the lead character, Johnny, dies at the end of the film, the comic is nonetheless going to feature him as the protagonist, a twist that Wilmore insists comic book readers will not find too far-fetched. "This is comics! People come back from the dead all the time! I mean, you read our Scarface book, right?" When informed that no one read IDW's Scarface comic, Wilmore continued "Well, trust me. If we can do a comic about how Tony Montana survived being shot, thrown off a ledge, and doing enough cocaine to kill the 1985 Chicago Bears, one self-inflicted gunshot wound is no problem."
"We're also unbelievably excited to have Peter David on board. He's not just one of comics' top writers with a gift for treating licensed properties with respect while still innovating, he's also a huge fan of The Room who was super-excited to be a part of this project."
When asked if he was, in fact, super-excited, David answered, "Hey, I got bills to pay, same as everybody else. You think I wanted to write Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, available now in paperback? That guy doesn't even like Star Trek."
The first installment of The Room 2: Roomier, "Fed Up With This World" is set to debut at this year's San Diego Comic-Con International, and is scheduled to ship to comic book stores in August. In addition to the standard cover, the sketch cover, the variant cover, the sketch variant, the foil variant, and the sketch foil variant, retailers will also be able to order a special "You're Tearing Me Apart!" version of the comic, a 1:100 variant that will be personally ripped in half by Tommy Wiseau himself.