Overview
- Jonathan Goldstein said Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con that he and his collaborators were hired to write a finished screenplay for a direct sequel but that Paramount has not approved production for financial reasons.
- The first film earned about $205 million worldwide on an estimated $150 million production budget, a shortfall that studio leaders cite when calculating whether to fund another costly fantasy film.
- Paramount formally commissioned the script and its production page credits writers Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley and Michael Gilio while listing the original principal cast, but those credits do not mean the movie is funded.
- Studio changes and shifting rights— including eOne’s sale to Lionsgate and Paramount’s later acquisition by Skydance—have complicated greenlight decisions and made financing a large sequel riskier for the companies involved.
- A separate live-action Dungeons & Dragons series is in active development at Netflix, which gives the franchise another outlet for stories if Paramount pursues a lower-budget movie or opts for TV expansion instead.