Oscar winner Michael Caine, age 92, will come out of retirement to make a sequel to a movie he did with Vin Diesel a decade ago.
According to Variety, The Last Witch Hunter 2 “is being fast-tracked through development at Lionsgate and Diesel’s production banner One Race Films.” Diesel will reprise his role as Kaulder and Caine as the 36th Dolan, although a deal with Caine isn’t final yet.
Caine was last seen on screen in 2023’s The Great Escaper. His storied career has seen him appear in several classics – The Man Who Would Be King, Get Carter, Alfie, Sleuth – and as a regular in the films of Christopher Nolan, including The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception.
Caine retired in 2023, saying at the time, “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well, I am now. … I’ve figured, 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?”
Apparently, for Caine, The Last Witch Hunter 2 beats being retired.
Caine raved about Diesel in his autobiography Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over, writing, “Vin’s special. I love Vin. … We first met at a dinner party about thirty years ago. I just instinctively greeted him with a hug and announced to the whole room, ‘This is my son!’”
Caine added, “Sometimes, you sense a connection. I just liked the guy immediately, he has a big heart.”
Based on Diesel’s Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, The Last Witch Hunter was a box office flop and critical dud when it came out in 2015. However, the movie was rediscovered in the ensuing years thanks to streaming and home video.
Lionsgate’s Adam Fogelson told Variety that “The Last Witch Hunter has grown since its theatrical release into a global fan favorite, with audiences continuing to discover and rewatch it across every platform over the past decade. That enduring enthusiasm made clear there is an appetite for more stories set in this world.”
Fogelson added that “advancements in filmmaking technology now allow us to economically deliver a sequel on an even more ambitious scale.”
IGN was not a fan of the original film. “Despite Vin Diesel’s action-star persona, The Last Witch Hunter delivers a lackluster fantasy plot and bland, one-note characters — including Diesel’s,” Max Nicholson wrote in his The Last Witch Hunter review, which he scored a 5 out of 10.
“While some of the action scenes are fun to watch, they’re also fleeting and bogged down with subpar CGI. In the end, The Last Witch Hunter is about what you’d expect from watching the trailer: it’s amusing on occasion, but mostly forgettable.”
No word yet on when production will begin on The Last Witch Hunter 2.
