A decade after the original film’s release, Lionsgate has announced that The Last Witch Hunter 2 is in motion, with leading man Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious) and Hollywood legend Michael Caine (The Dark Knight) returning to reprise their roles.
As reported by Variety, the sequel will see the 92-year-old Caine coming out of his retirement in 2023 following the release of his (then) last film, the British biographical comedy-drama The Great Escaper. “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now,” said the star during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today show. “I’ve had a picture where I’ve played the lead, and it’s got incredible reviews. The only parts I’m likely to get now are old men… And I thought, well, I might as well leave with all this — what have I got to do to beat this?”
Caine is set to reprise his role from the original 2015 film The Last Witch Hunter, where he played the 36th Dolan, the last of a line of priests who assist a warrior named Kaulder (played by Diesel) in their quest to stop a plague created by an ancient witch queen (Julie Engelbrecht).
The original film was a critical and commercial flop upon its release, although, as per Lionsgate, it earned a second lease of life on home video and on digital streamers like Netflix, where it grew to become one of the platform’s most-watched movies, with Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson explaining that this “enduring enthusiasm made clear there is an appetite for more stories set in this world.”
Although no further production details have been revealed for The Last Witch Hunter 2, the film is reportedly being fast-tracked through development at Lionsgate and is set to be much bigger in scale compared to the first, with Fogelson adding that “advancements in filmmaking technology now allow us to economically deliver a sequel on an even more ambitious scale.”
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
Ting Wei
