Development
Director Robert Zemeckis states that initially Back to the Future was not planned to have a sequel, but its huge box office success led to the conception of a second installment. The director later agreed to do a sequel, but only if protagonists Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd came back as well. Once they did so, Zemeckis got with screenwriting partner Bob Gale to create a story for the sequel. Zemeckis and Gale would later regret that they ended the first movie with Marty's girlfriend Jennifer along with Marty and Doc Brown in the car, as they had to put a story that fit her in instead of a whole new adventure.
Gale wrote most of the first draft by himself, as Zemeckis was busy making Who Framed Roger Rabbit. At first Part II was to take place in 1967, but Zemeckis later stated that the time paradoxes of the film gave a good opportunity to go back to 1955 and see the events of the original from a different light. While most of the original cast agreed to return, a major stumbling block arose when negotiating Crispin Glover's fee for reprising the role of George McFly. When it became clear that he would not be returning, the role was rewritten so that George is dead when the action takes place in the alternative version of 1985.
The greatest challenge was the creation of the futuristic vision of Marty's home town in the year 2015. Production designer Rick Carter wanted to create a very detailed image with a different tone than the movie Blade Runner, saying he wanted to get past the smoke and chrome. Rick Carter and his most talented men spent months plotting, planning and preparing Hill Valley's transformation into a city of the future.
When writing the script for Part II, writer and producer Bob Gale wanted to push the ideas of the first film further for humorous effect. Zemeckis admits he was somewhat concerned about portraying the future because of the risk of making wildly inaccurate predictions. Gale added that they tried to make the future a nice place, "where what's wrong is due to who lives in the future as opposed to the technology" in contrast to the pessimistic, Orwellian future seen in most science fiction. To keep production costs low and take advantage of an extended break Michael J. Fox had from his show Family Ties, the film was shot back-to-back with sequel Back to the Future Part III.
Read more about this topic: Back To The Future Part II
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