ATL: Where are they now?

The movie ATL was released when I was in high school. And I never felt so seen and represented by a film in a high school setting. It seems that prior to this film most urban high school experience movies were unrealistic and/or written by white writers who were pandering. ATL is still a movie I re-watch and still enjoy. However, the fan girl in me has to write my version of where I think the characters ended up. Let’s jump right into it, shall we….

Tonya: She would have had three children before her 20th birthday. She would have stayed pretty and her body would have stayed intact. Her mama would have found some time to be home now because she would be the one raising Tonya’s kids. She would be in Miami and NYC every other weekend and kept a rapper or ballplayer on reserve. She would have had a brief career at a popular strip club before having baby #4 with a man with some decent money.

Uncle George: That woman who was riding around on his moped. They lived together forever and never married. He tolerated her kids and she kept a clean house and cooked well for him. They never really retire and just work until their bodies force them to sit down. Once Rashad and Ant moved from the house he would speak to them on holidays and birthdays while occasionally calling Rashad to “hold $200 until next month.”

The twins: We already know. SCAMMERS! They would have built a lucrative career being boosters. Sephora, Zara, Louis Vuitton. Hell, even Target would hate to see them coming. They would be in the club every weekend and any rapper or baller with a few pennies to rub together would have become their baby daddy. Then, they would have caught their breaks and joined Love & Hip Hop ATL.   

Ant: Sure, he learned his lesson and abandoned his dope boy ambition. But let’s just keep it real for a second, he would have retained that “get over” mentality. He would have graduated but opted from going to college. After working a few dead-end jobs and after the birth of his first child, he would have then found his talents in cutting hair and became a barber.  

Teddy: Forever a hustler. And I love that for him. Between selling grills, he would have probably ventured into the food business and opened a food truck while being a party promoter. He would have been that old man in the club who tricks his money off on the young girls. He would have always been everywhere and with everyone and no one would ever notice that he never had a car. Also, he would have been a complete enigma. Where no one ever knew where he lived, who he dated, where his kids were, ect. Yet, everyone knows he has these things yet he kept his personal business guarded.

Brooklyn: Let’s just keep it real. Brooklyn’s character screamed CALL CENTER MANAGER. The ones who drive an Altima, Camry, or fifteen-year-old Lexus or Benz. He would use his power on the job to bag women and would have always been captain save a ….. He would have kept a clean yet simple apartment and always managed to keep himself in some designer clothes, despite living paycheck to paycheck. Every time he was frustrated he would claim to move back home to New York, yet would never go back, not even to visit. In his mid to late twenties he would have found a baby mama. More than likely a woman who had a few kids already. However, he would have loved them to the end and been a great provider. He would have retained his friendship with Teddy because Teddy was the connect to all the clubs, and nightlife.  

Esquire: We all know that once Esquire went to his Ivy League university he would have forgotten everything about Atlanta. Teddy who? Brooklyn who? He would have kept Rashad at arm's length. After graduation and sometime before grad school he would have stopped responding to text and absolutely would not visit his old neighborhood. He would not have completely sold out though. He would have dated and then married a Black woman who came from a wealthy and prestigious family. They would have met in a business finance class and joined the black republican club on campus.

Nu-Nu: Hate to burst your bubble but Rashad and Nu-Nu do not make it past her sophomore year of college. Nor does she desire to be ghetto once she pledges to a sorority and finding her forever friends. No one knows this but shortly after her breakup with Rashad she briefly dates Esquire. (Another reason he neglects to retain his high school friendships.) Their relationship lasted about eight months not quite a year. She majored in political science and left the state for law school. She would have worked in entertainment law for some years and then became a correspondent for CNN or something similar.   

Rashad: Artist. He would have been the street artist creating those breath-taking murals. He would have been illustrating children’s books, cartoons, and other popular commissioned work. After he and Nu-Nu broke up he would have left Atlanta and relocated to Florida, Texas, or California. You would go on his social media and only see his work, or him in remote villages in South American, Asian, and African countries teaching children how to draw. He would have settled down and married a popular social justice advocate and the two would live a life off the grid.      

Of course, these are my fan-girl predictions. I heard talk on social media that there was a sequel in the works but maybe that was a rumor. However, if a sequel is being written, call your girl to join the writing team. I got yall. Lol