Netflix is Seeing How Much Marlon Wayans is Too Much

We’re all familiar with movies like The Parent Trap where one person plays a set of twins, or the Madea franchise where Tyler Perry plays more than one character. Well, Netflix is once again taking things to another level by casting Marlon Wayans as a set of sextuplets.

Deadline reports that the film, cleverly titled Sextuplets, begins production in Atlanta next month. Wayans worked alongside Mike Glock (Return of the Mac) and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House) to write the script for director Michael Tiddes (Fifty Shades of Black). The film will be like one big reunion, as Wayans is working with people, aside from Glock, whom he has collaborated with in the past, including Marlon star Bresha Webb.

Sextuplets will follow Alan (Wayans), a man who wishes to meet his birth mother before his own first child is born. However, upon his journey to do so, he meets his identical brother Russell and learns that he was born a sextuplet. Alan and Russell then embark to meet their other four siblings, but “Alan quickly realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.”

I can only imagine the kind of shenanigans that will ensue with the other siblings, especially given the creative team behind this story. Not only that, but there is never specificity that the sextuplets will all be male. With an Instagram post from Wayans saying “I’m playing 6 characters in makeup… thank God I got 40 voices in my head,” we know that we’re in for something not only narratively but also visually funny.

The tone of Sextuplets is going to be much different than the 2017 Netflix original What Happened to Monday, a film about a set of female septuplets (all played by Noomi Rapace) born in the near future under a government with a strict one-child law. Each of the girls is named after a day of the week and may only go out in public on their named day. Things go fine until one day Monday doesn’t come home.

Now, I’m sure we’ll get some more serious moments about how family comes before everything, or how nothing is more beautiful than the power of love. But, for the most part, I think we’re going to be getting some great bits from Wayans portraying his own brothers, and possibly sister(s).

Given that Netflix has pulled off a multiple-identical-sibling feature before, there shouldn’t be any doubts that they’ll be able to do the same thing again, especially with a lighter story. There are so many comedic things that twins can get themselves into, let alone six identical siblings. There’s the idea of going on dates for each other, breaking up with significant others for each other, switching classes with each other, etc.

Not only that, but the fact that the sextuplets all belong to different families and don’t know their birth mom could make it all the better. Where is she? Why did she leave behind six kids? Why did she never tell them about each other? These are the things we need to know that could make for a great plot.

This has great potential, and Wayans back with a familiar crew will only make it all the better. These people are familiar with each others’ strengths and know how to make something hilarious. We’ve seen their collaborative efforts on the Paranormal Activity parody A Haunted House, as well as Fifty Shades of Black, which spoofs Fifty Shades of Grey.

While this doesn’t seem like it is going to be a parody, it could possibly be along the lines of one. With Three Identical Strangers blowing up this year, maybe this is a project inspired by the documentary hit that no one saw coming. While that’s a stretch and most likely not the case, it’s still fun to think about.

Sextuplets is expected to hit Netflix sometime next year.

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