It’s been four years since Now You See Me 2 failed to take the obvious joke and call itself Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, but now Lionsgate is giving the franchise another shot by picking up a third movie that will hopefully be called Now You See Me: Now You Don’t or Now You 3 Me or really anything but Now You See Me 3 (which, knowing Hollywood and its inability to recognize good ideas will be what they eventually go with). Variety says this is based on a “fresh take” by American Hustle writer Eric Warren Singer, and it apparently involves introducing “new characters into the world while also creating opportunities for the original cast to reprise their roles.”
It doesn’t sound like the original cast, which included Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, and Lizzy Caplan, has officially signed on, but if this is a fresh take with room for new characters, Lionsgate could easily just bring in one of the lesser characters (cough Dave Franco cough) and use them to bring new people into Now You See Me’s wacky world of magical thieves. Speaking of, it’ll be interesting to see how they keep these movies going for a third installment without completely breaking any semblance of reality, since they’re already about increasingly elaborate magical stunts and a secret society of actual wizards, but maybe this will be one of those streamlined fresh takes that’s more about magicians who steal from rich people and less about magicians who also know real magic.
Also, this is apparently going to be a different version—a “fresh take,” if you will—from the previous incarnation of Now You 3 Me.