Netflix announces sequel to Bright, the 'worst film of 2017'

Despite a reputation for being unquestionably awful, the Netflix original movie Bright will have a sequel, with the streaming service confirming they have put the project into development.

The critically maligned fantasy film, which stars Will Smith as a bigoted cop in a futuristic Los Angeles populated by humans and mythical orcs, has unexpectedly become the most-viewed film in Netflix history based on its first week's worth of streams, and one of the biggest Netflix originals in the service's history.

An official Netflix statement claims that Smith, his costar Joel Edgerton and director David Ayer are all expected to return.

The news will be music to the ears of screenwriter Max Landis, a controversial entertainment figure who previously boasted that the vast Bright universe will be his own version of Star Wars. Speaking to Collider ahead of Bright's release, he explained that he has "30 pages" of text describing the minutiae of different orc races.

"I have gone, like to a degree that's embarrassing, full JRR Tolkien on this," he declared.

Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos (left) and Will Smith at the U.S. premiere of Bright. Photo / AP

While Bright has clearly been profitable for Netflix, despite its expensive $90 million price tag, it has garnered incredibly negative reviews since its December 22nd debut on the service, with The Wrap branding it "astoundingly bad", IndieWire dubbing it "the worst movie of 2017", and Australia's news.com.au calling it a "pile of centaur droppings".