Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), in an upcoming episode of Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast, reveals that the 2019 ableist comedy-drama The Upside is getting a sequel.

Based on the 2011 French film, The Intouchables, STX Entertainment's The Upside is based on the true story of a quadriplegic billionaire Phillip Lacasse (Cranston), who befriends a recently paroled convict Dell Scott (Kevin Hart), and hires him as a caretaker. Initially screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was shelved and sold off following the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The Upside was eventually bought by STX Entertainment and Lantern Entertainment and then released in the United States on Jan. 11, 2019, becoming Lantern's first release.

Despite some critical acclaim, The Upside was heavily criticized by the disabled community for casting an able-bodied actor as a quadriplegic instead of giving the role to a disabled actor. The Forbes disability columnist Kristen Lopez criticized the film for perpetuating harmful tropes about the disabled community and entitlement, writing, "The myth of the independently wealthy person with a disability is a fallacy with repercussions that fall on people actually living with disabilities."

Related: Bryan Cranston Opens Up About Emotionally Difficult Scene from Breaking Bad

Bryan Cranston Defends His Decision to Reprise Phillip Lacasse Role

The Upside
STX Entertainment

Cranston revealed on the "Club Random" podcast that the story isn’t over, and he's working on a follow-up movie with Hart. "We’re doing a sequel to it," Cranston said in the episode released early to Variety.

"I got a lot of s**t for that," Cranston continued. "I am an able-bodied actor playing a disabled actor."

Although the criticism from the disability community correctly points out that disabled actors aren't given the same opportunities as able-bodied actors (and was not about Cranston's acting chops), Maher responded, "I mean, it’s called acting. It’s almost the whole point, that you are doing something that you are not, right?"

Cranston continued, "I was pretty surprised that I got some blowback to it, and I thought, 'There’s a good point, that disabled actors are not given an opportunity.' It’s a kind of a catch-22 that… it’s like, ‘Do you have the cache to be able to carry a film?'"

After defending his decision to reprise the role by naming several able-bodied actors who were given the opportunity to play disabled characters in lieu of disabled actors getting opportunities in Hollywood, Cranston added, "You can only have the perspective of a 66-year-old white male… you can understand, but you cannot really know what it feels like to live in that skin."

Bill Maher's full interview with Bryan Cranston will be released on Monday, Jan. 30.