Daveed Diggs says the 'Twister' sequel he was developing with Helen Hunt didn't get made due to 'potentially shady' reasons

• Daveed Diggs and his writing partner Rafael Casal were developing a "Twister" sequel with its star Helen Hunt for her to direct.
• It never got made and Diggs told Insider it's due to "potentially shady" reasons.

Daveed Diggs, the Grammy and Tony-winning actor-singer from "Hamilton" and "Blindspotting," is speaking out for the first time about the never-made "Twister" sequel he was developing with its star Helen Hunt and his "Blindspotting" cowriter Rafael Casal.

Hunt, who was going to direct the movie, first spoke about the project back in 2021 on "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen, when she said she wanted to make a sequel about "all Black and Brown storm chasers" but the studio behind the original "wouldn't do it."

"Oh man, I'm not going to get into it mostly because I'm probably going to misremember things," Diggs told Insider on Tuesday while promoting season two of his Starz series "Blindspotting," which is based on his acclaimed 2018 movie.

"But all I'll say is there was an opportunity where we were talking about that, and it didn't happen, and the reasons that it didn't happen are potentially shady," he continued. "But shady in the way that we know the industry is shady."

"We could barely get a meeting," Hunt, who currently stars in the "Blindspotting" series, told Cohen back in 2021. "And this is in June of 2020 when it was all about diversity."

"And it would have been so cool," she continued. "There was a HBCU [historically Black college and university] where we wanted it to take place, and a rocket science club, and in this one, they shoot the rockets into the tornado. It was going to be so cool."

"Twister," which starred Hunt and Bill Paxton as storm chasers, was released in 1996 and became a box office hit thanks to dazzling CGI effects depicting its stars racing through vicious tornado storms.

For years, Universal Pictures has been developing a sequel. Around the same time Hunt said she, Diggs, and Casal were pitching their sequel idea, Variety reported that "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski was attached to direct a sequel.

In 2022, it was reported that "Minari" director Lee Isaac Chung would direct the sequel, which is set for release in the summer of 2024 and is being produced by Frank Marshall ("Indiana Jones" and "Jurassic Park" franchises).

The sequel is to focus on the daughter of the characters played by Hunt and Paxton, who takes on their love for storm chasing.

"Blindspotting" season two, which Diggs cowrites and executive produces, premieres on Friday on Starz. He will next be seen in the live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," playing Sebastian. It opens in theaters on May 26.