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Magicians, a deadly fisherman, and a certain yellow electric mouse are all getting another cinematic go-round in these upcoming mystery sequels that promise to blow our minds.

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00:00Magicians, a deadly fisherman, and a certain yellow electric mouse are all getting another
00:05cinematic go-round in these upcoming mystery sequels that promise to blow our minds.
00:11In 2009, Guy Ritchie brought Sarah Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective back to
00:15the big screen, with Robert Downey Jr. playing one of the most memorable on-screen versions
00:20of Sherlock Holmes, alongside Jude Law as his faithful assistant, Watson.
00:24It was Ritchie's most successful movie at the box office at that point, and a sequel
00:28was all but guaranteed, with A Game of Shadows arriving just two years later.
00:32Even before it was released, it was announced that a third film was already being written.
00:36It's been rough for Sherlock Holmes 3 in the years since, though, with script rewrites,
00:40planned production start dates that came and went, Ritchie eventually bowing out, and then
00:44the COVID-19 pandemic putting the project on indefinite hiatus.
00:48But then 2023 finally brought fresh news, as Downey's wife and producing partner Susan
00:53Downey confirmed to The Wrap that the movie was still being worked on.
00:56We still don't have a hard release date, though, especially now that Downey is working on his
01:00big return to the MCU.
01:02But as long as he remains passionate, we're confident it will happen soon enough.
01:06The 2013's Now You See Me is an inventive heist film about a group of stage magicians
01:11who rob banks and the wealthy.
01:12The impressive ensemble included Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo,
01:18Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, with all but Fisher returning for the sequel.
01:22Now You See Me 2 also added Lizzie Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe into the mix for another
01:26complex and mysterious plan.
01:28"...follow me.
01:29Follow me."
01:30In 2015, a year before the release of Now You See Me 2, it was revealed that the series
01:37was destined to be a trilogy.
01:39Things went quiet for a bit, but then Eisenberg gave the most hopeful news in years when he
01:43confirmed that he had read the finished script and that he expected to be on set within six
01:47months.
01:48The ensuing months saw reveals of various cast members, both new and returning.
01:52With July 2024 finally bringing the official announcement to expect Now You See Me 3 in
01:56November 2025.
01:592018's crime drama Den of Thieves wasn't a huge hit, but it nonetheless found a big enough
02:04audience to justify a sequel.
02:06The original stars Gerard Butler as a Los Angeles detective tasked with bringing down
02:10a dangerous criminal organization composed of former United States Marines.
02:14But it took a while for the second film to actually come together.
02:18During the May 2023 Cannes Film Festival, distributor Briarcliff Entertainment announced
02:22that it would be handling the U.S. release of Den of Thieves, Pantera, sometime in the
02:26fourth quarter of 2024, with Butler confirmed to be returning.
02:30Lionsgate subsequently took over the distribution rights, with the movie now set to debut in
02:34theaters in January 2025.
02:37A trailer arrived in September 2024, and as Butler promised to Inverse, this one's a lot
02:42more fun.
02:43"...and the top goes gangster."
02:45With the Scream franchise finding new life in the 2020s, it was all but inevitable that
02:49some of its horror contemporaries would also return to the big screen.
02:52Sure enough, the I Know What You Did Last Summer series has a fourth entry in the works,
02:56marking its first new installment since 2006's I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer.
03:01But unlike that film, which was a standalone sequel that didn't bring back any cast members
03:05from the first two movies, I Know What You Did Last Summer 4 is set to have Freddie Prinze
03:09Jr. return as Ray Bronson.
03:11As of September 2024, fellow OG cast member Jennifer Love Hewitt hasn't officially joined
03:17this outing, though she is actively in talks to do so.
03:20Little is known about the plot, other than that it will connect to the first two films
03:23and will not be a total reboot as previously speculated.
03:27It's currently scheduled to be released in theaters on July 18, 2025.
03:32Tom Clancy's 1993 novel Without Remorse was supposed to be adapted into a movie right
03:36alongside the author's Jack Ryan-versed adaptations of the 90s.
03:40But ultimately, it wasn't meant to be.
03:42Another attempt at a Without Remorse film was undertaken in the early 2010s, but that
03:47too fell apart.
03:48The third time proved to be the charm, when Michael B. Jordan was booked for the lead
03:52role, and it finally saw the light of day on Prime Video in 2021.
03:56Jordan had in fact signed on to appear in two connected Tom Clancy movies, as Without
04:00Remorse was meant to set the stage for a film based on the better-known Rainbow Six, which
04:04had already been adapted into a series of successful video games.
04:08While the Without Remorse and Rainbow Six books actually have different lead characters,
04:12the Rainbow Six movie has been retooled a bit to feature John Kelly from Without Remorse
04:16rather than John Clark from the Rainbow Six novel.
04:18"...John Clark.
04:19That's real creative."
04:22As for when we'll finally get to see Rainbow Six, progress has been a bit quiet since 2023,
04:26but there's nothing to suggest it isn't still on the way eventually.
04:292016's The Accountant features plenty of mystery, as Ben Affleck's protagonist, Christian, has
04:35yet to figure out why his latest client is trying to keep millions of dollars off their
04:39account ledger, and why people are being killed to protect that secret.
04:42Critical reviews were so-so, but it did well enough financially that a sequel was announced
04:46the following year.
04:47Due to hit theaters in April 2025, The Accountant 2 brings back most of the principal cast from
04:52the original, with Affleck's longtime pal and creative partner Matt Damon signing on
04:56to co-produce alongside Affleck.
04:58In 2021, director Gavin O'Connor revealed that the plan is to ultimately have an Accountant
05:03trilogy, though as of 2024, only the second one has been officially announced.
05:08If you've been wondering what Mischa Barton has been up to lately, then you may have just
05:12missed her turn as Agatha Christie-obsessed florist-turned-amateur sleuth Miranda Green
05:16in 2023's Invitation to a Murder.
05:18Set in 1930s England, the movie featured some classic whodunit vibes, a rarity for a genre
05:23that is more often about modern reinvention these days.
05:26True to the authors and the franchises that it was inspired by, it appears that Invitation
05:30to a Murder won't just be a one-and-done adventure for Ms. Green.
05:33In fact, the franchise already has a name, The Miranda Green Mysteries, with two more
05:37titles in the works that are both due out in 2025.
05:40It's an ambitious undertaking, to be sure, but here's hoping that Ms. Green gets to keep
05:44solving mysteries for years to come.
05:46So get out your magnifying glass and keep an eye out for Murder at the Embassy and The
05:50Mystery of the Golden Spear.
05:51What if I can't?
05:53Then we'll probably all die.
05:572019 was a significant turning point for movie adaptations of video games, as it saw the
06:02release of the first two video game movies to ever have positive Rotten Tomatoes scores.
06:06One of them was, believe it or not, The Angry Birds Movie 2, which came out in August of
06:10that year.
06:11Arriving a few months earlier was Detective Pikachu, which also set the domestic box office
06:15record for video game adaptations, though it would later be bested by Uncharted and
06:19the first two Sonic the Hedgehog flicks.
06:21So clearly, Detective Pikachu had the numbers to justify a sequel.
06:25In fact, a second film was already in the works before the first one even started breaking
06:29records.
06:30But progress was slow — so slow, in fact, that Justice Smith said in 2021 that he was
06:35no longer optimistic that the follow-up was still happening.
06:37But 2023 brought an update that Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Kreisel was being courted
06:42to direct the sequel, thereby confirming that it was still an active project.
06:46That remains the last official news on Detective Pikachu 2, but hopefully we'll be hearing
06:50more soon.
06:52The Holmes family has been quite busy on both the big and small screens lately.
06:55In addition to the upcoming Robert Downey Jr. starring sequel and sporadic rumblings
06:59of a possible fifth season of the BBC's Sherlock, there's also the potential third installment
07:04to Netflix's own unique spin on the property, Enola Holmes.
07:07Millie Bobby Brown plays the title character, the teenage sister of Sherlock who's trying
07:11to make a name for herself in the sleuthing game.
07:13Other members of the Holmes clan are involved as well, from oldest sibling Mycroft to their
07:17mother Eudoria.
07:19These movies offer a lighter, funnier, and more family-friendly angle to the classic
07:23franchise, with Henry Cavill playing a much kinder and less cynical version of Sherlock
07:27than other portrayals of the character.
07:29Enola Holmes 2 arrived in November 2022, and November 2023 brought confirmation that a
07:34script for a third film was in the works.
07:36Then in August 2024, it was reported that Enola Holmes 3 was set to begin filming in
07:41early 2025.
07:43"...perhaps you could come to Baker Street from time to time."
07:47After co-writing and directing Doctor Strange, Scott Derrickson began working on its sequel
07:51before creative differences led him to abandon the project.
07:55So he and his longtime collaborator C. Robert Cargill returned to their horror roots with
07:59The Black Phone, which came out in June 2022.
08:02With a story about a mysterious child kidnapper known as The Grabber set in 1970s Colorado,
08:07the modestly budgeted thriller ended up being a surprise box office hit.
08:11In August 2022, Derrickson began hinting at a sequel and saying that the studio was
08:15pushing for one after how well the original performed.
08:18The Black Phone 2 was eventually officially announced, with most of the original cast
08:22set to return, including Grabber portrayer Ethan Hawke.
08:25An intended June 2025 release date was also announced, although that date has since been
08:29pushed back a bit to October 2025.
08:322018's A Simple Favor saw director Paul Feig continuing his successful streak of inventive
08:38hybrid comedies.
08:39Starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick as unlikely friends who bond over sharing sordid
08:43secrets about their pasts, the movie did respectable box office numbers, especially considering
08:48its fairly modest $20 million budget, and a sequel was eventually announced in 2022.
08:53Feig, Lively, and Kendrick are all set to return for A Simple Favor 2, with the only
08:58thing known about the story is that it's positioned as a direct sequel to the original.
09:02Since the first one came out, Feig's latest releases have been suffering from disappointing
09:06critical notices, which might be why this would be his first ever sequel.
09:10Lively could also use some positive PR herself these days, after the awkward and controversial
09:14news cycle following the release of It Ends With Us.
09:17There's no hard timeline yet for the release of A Simple Favor 2, though Feig has confirmed
09:21that filming wrapped in May 2024, so it shouldn't be a terribly long wait.
09:25You know, Paul is pulling out all the stops and bringing the fans what they loved so much
09:30about the first."
09:31Arguably the biggest ongoing mystery film franchise right now is the Knives Out series,
09:36which thus far includes the 2019 original and 2022's Glass Onion.
09:40The only real connecting thread between them thus far has been writer-director Rian Johnson
09:44and quirky detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig.
09:47Blanc is set to return once again in Wake Up Deadman, scheduled to hit Netflix sometime
09:52in 2025.
09:53Like the previous two Benoit Blanc mysteries, Wake Up Deadman will feature a new cast of
09:57characters played by an entirely fresh set of actors.
10:00This time, the ensemble of suspects includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry
10:05Washington, and Thomas Hayden Church, among others.
10:08Nothing is known about the plot, but expect a lot of twists and turns and double and triple
10:12crosses as Blanc must once again solve what is likely another murder.
10:16It seems as though Craig doesn't yet have the same franchise fatigue he began to experience
10:20while playing James Bond.
10:21As he told Variety in 2022,
10:23"...if Rian keeps writing them, I'll keep doing them."