Charlie's Angels director guesses he could do a third one

Yeah, we’ve all learned our lesson about the pitfalls of legacy revivals never living up to the energy of the original, but… maybe we could do just one more legacy revival, as a little treat? McG, director of Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, says he’d be down to do another if his cast is. That’s Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz, and whoever they decide to recast as Bosley (the role played by Bill Murray and Bernie Mac in the first two movies).

“It would take a long discussion with those three wonderful performers who I adore,” McG tells Entertainment Weekly in a new interview. “I was very happy to see Elizabeth Banks take the helm and do what she did, which was fun. There always seems to be chatter about that. I’m very happy to discuss it with Drew and Cameron and Lucy, but at the same time, I’m very happy to pass the torch. I mean, I love the Tim Burton Batman movies, I love the new Batman movies. It’s just sort of like there can be a keeper of the flame and you can pass the torch.”

In this day and age, it’s hard to believe some plum IP like Charlie’s Angels (which began as a television series in the 1970s) would be left to languish for long. Banks’ 2019 take on the franchise (which starred Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska) served as a continuation of the Angels lore rather than a full reboot, tying elements of the TV show and the 2000s movies together into a fresh take.

Unfortunately, that take debuted to mixed reviews and a disappointing box office that Banks is still answering for to this day. Earlier this month, she once again decried the “gendered agenda” that surrounded the release of the movie, saying it “pigeonholed” her and the audience. “I happen to be a woman who directed a Charlie’s Angels movie that happened to star three incredible women. You can’t control the media saying, ‘You’re a lady director, and that’s special!’—which it is, but it’s not the only thing.”

At the time, Banks had the support of Drew Barrymore, who was an executive producer on the 2019 film after having served as a producer on McG’s Angels movies. The talk show host has said she would return to the franchise as an actor “in a heartbeat.” So, “Who knows? Maybe we’ve got one left in us that tells a very compelling story if the opportunity presents itself,” McG muses to EW. “I love the three of them so much. They put me on the map. They looked out for me when I was a first-time filmmaker. I was very nearly fired off that film on many, many occasions, and Drew stood up for me and I’m forever indebted to her. And obviously, those are three performers where God broke the mold. They don’t make ‘em like that. I mean, those are three special ones.”