The surprise success of the first stage-magicians-pulling-a-heist thriller Now You See Me naturally led to the greenlight for a second film, which is a year away from release. But Lionsgate is apparently already so confident in the sequel that it has announced that a third film is in development.
Speaking in the context of a less-than-sexy call with analysts to talk up the company’s earning profile, Lionsgate boss Jon Feltheimer announced that he and his team were already planning a third outing, which will surely end up being called Now You See Three, unless they don’t like laughter or fun.
The original, which saw Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco as performers The Four Horsemen recruited for a series of daring robberies with an ulterior motive, took in less than $30 million on its opening weekend, but eventually made more than $351 million worldwide. The sequel, called Now You See Me 2: The Second Act, reunites everyone save Fisher and adds Jay Chou, Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe, who seems a puzzling choice since he’s never been associated with a project that features magic before.
With some fresh heist action and a new threat – most likely Radcliffe, playing the son of Michael Caine’s Arthur Tressler – the sequel is set for release on June 10, 2016. The third one will stay a script notion until the box-office figures are in, but if the second film is a hit out of the gate, things will start to move more quickly.