More than once in the last few years, and particularly after the staggering disappointment that was The Love Guru, talk has turned to Mike Myers returning to his most successful cinematic creation, Austin Powers. The most recent blip on the rumour radar was in 2008, but now HitFix has confirmed that Myers has closed a deal to make a fourth outing.
The world hasn’t experienced the toothy, hyper-horny superspy since 2002’s Goldmember, but Myers – likely writing once more with regular collaborator Mike McCullers – is now officially back aboard to come up with the script and play the lead.
As HitFix notes, there are zero details beyond Myers’ involvement just yet and while the previous talk about the possible film focused on a Dr Evil-centric adventure, who knows if he’s still going in that direction?
Also unconfirmed for now is who will be calling the shots, though given that Jay Roach (who last brought the world Dinner for Schmucks and is gearing up to make the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy Southern Rivals) is about as crucial to the Powers series as Myers, the hope is that he’ll return.
The final big question? Whether the world will still embrace Austin. Perhaps the time away will have been good for his comic mojo…