Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment’s starry supernatural vehicle The Last Witch Hunter is yet to hit theaters – it’s out tomorrow, October 23 – but Vin Diesel has revealed that the studios are already marinating on the possibility of a follow-up.
Indeed, the actor has spoke in the past about his desire to develop Witch Hunter into a new franchise under Summit, and it seems the studio certainly shares that enthusiasm, after Diesel revealed to Complex Magazine that executives approached him on set to present the concept of another adventure for his age-old warrior, Kaulder.
“The top brass of the company were there one day while Michael Caine and I were doing a scene together, and came by the trailer at the end of the day and said, ‘Hey, we want to get started with a sequel right away,'” Diesel told the magazine. “Maybe we should release the film first.”
Opening to good-to-average review scores, the only deciding factor that could make or break the chances of a sequel to The Last Witch Hunter will likely be the film’s box office performance. Universal’s Fast and Furious juggernaut has irrefutably nurtured Vin Diesel’s star power over the years, but will it be enough to ignite a new franchise at Lionsgate?
It’s opening to tough competition, what with Goosebumps performing overly well at Sony, not to mention Bridge of Spies and Guillermo del Toro’s genre piece Crimson Peak. As a undisputed B-movie, The Last Witch Hunter treads a fine line between boom and bust, the same one tread by the likes of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Sergei Bodrov’s Seventh Son. But which side will it fall on?
The Last Witch Hunter looms into theaters tomorrow, October 23, and for our own verdict on the supernatural actioner check out our review.
The modern world holds many secrets, but the most astounding secret of all is that witches still live amongst us; vicious supernatural creatures intent on unleashing the Black Death upon the world. Armies of witch hunters battled the unnatural enemy across the globe for centuries, including Kaulder (Diesel), a valiant warrior who managed to slay the all-powerful Queen Witch, decimating her followers in the process. In the moments right before her death, the Queen curses Kaulder with her own immortality, forever separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. Today Kaulder is the only one of his kind remaining, and has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all the while yearning for his long-lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to Kaulder, the Queen Witch is resurrected and seeks revenge on her killer causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race.