‘Napoleon Dynamite’ Cast on Where Their Characters Are Today: ‘Not Looking Very Good’

Napoleon Dynamite is 20 years old, but according to the movie’s cast, its lead characters probably aren’t doing so hot. “I think it's not looking very good for most of them,” laughed Jon Heder, the actor who played Napoleon, at a recent Q&A with fans.

The movie ends on a moment of triumph for Napoleon and Pedro, but in Heder’s view, it’s all downhill from there, according to a PEOPLE report. “Napoleon is probably paying child support to two different moms, with two different kids,” Heder speculates. “Maybe Trisha was a fling. Like, ‘Let’s give it a go... No, I was right the first time.’” (Trisha was Napoleon’s reluctant date to the high school dance — hard to imagine she’d say yes a second time, but hey, life is weird.) 

Napoleon did end up dancing with Deb, Tina Majorino’s character, but Heder doesn’t have high hopes for that couple either. “It didn’t work out with Deb, but he really wants to make it work with Deb so he’s like, ‘I’ve gotta get some political sway to pull some cool favors.’ So he goes to his best friend, who’s in some high places.”

Is Heder implying that Pedro Sánchez eventually is elected president, er, mayor of Preston, Idaho? The actor who played Napoleon’s pal, Efren Ramirez, has several optimistic ideas for the character’s future. He imagines Pedro running his own bakery in partnership with his wife Summer Wheatley (Haylie Duff), who somehow returns his affections after refusing to do so in the movie.

“And they would have like, five kids. Maybe even twins! But I would also say he’d be running for city councilman,” Ramirez told the fans. “And he’d want to make everyone’s wildest dreams come true.”

Okay, city councilman. That would probably be enough to get Napoleon back in Deb’s good graces.

“But not only that — he’d probably have a law firm, Sánchez and Sánchez, along with Summer, and they’re working together as a team,” Ramirez continued. 

A bakery and a law firm? Gosh, Pedro has skills.

And how about Uncle Rico? Actor Jon Gries imagines the ex-high-school football star would still be cooking up entrepreneurial schemes. “He started his own YouTube channel, Backyard Teenage Wrestling,” said Gries (a channel I’d watch, by the way). “He’s had some subpoenas, ’cause kids have broken arms and broken ankles from jumping off of roofs onto tables and things.”

That’s no problem if you have friends in high places. “He might go to Sánchez and Sánchez,” figured Gries, “to get him out of trouble.”

Is a sequel in the offing? That’s hard to know. But if it does come to fruition, it sounds pretty bleak. “We do feel like this film would be shot, yes, in real time, 20 years later — maybe in winter, so that we could kind of show that life sometimes isn’t always sunny and summery and sweet and blue skies,” says Gries, painting a dreary picture for the fans.

Not to be outdone, Heder took it a step darker. “The film took place in their youth, when there’s charm and there’s no responsibility. But now that they’re adults and they’ve got weights on them,” he said. “Napoleon has braces.”