Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.Lizzy Caplan breaks down why Lula May left the Four Horsemen before Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, her surprise return, and her future in the franchise. Caplan made her franchise debut as Lula in Now You See Me 2 due to the absence of Isla Fisher’s Henley Reeves. Fisher’s pregnancy conflicted with the second movie’s filming schedule, which necessitated the introduction of a new member of the Horsemen.
In Now You See Me 2, Lula becomes an integral member of the team and begins a romantic relationship with one of her fellow Horsemen, Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). However, while the marketing showed the original Four Horsemen reuniting for the third movie, Lula was noticeably absent from the marketing, raising questions about whether she would return.
Lula does end up appearing in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, where she uses facial prosthetics and an artificial arm that appears to be bleeding profusely as part of her confused, elderly woman disguise. This is all part of a trick to break the Horsemen and their new allies out of jail, and she then joins them in their latest schemes.
Lula’s Now You See Me Return Explained By Lizzy Caplan
In an interview with Ash Crossan for ScreenRant‘s cover story, Caplan explains why Lula left the Horsemen, even though she believes in the cause more than Jack, who has “sold out” while performing magic on corporate retreats and cruise ships. Caplan also reveals that more of Lula’s backstory between the sequels was originally written, but she’s glad these scenes were cut. Check out her comments below:
She is living in Paris. We hear that from Dave’s character, Jack, but you don’t see her. You think she’s just gone off. This movie is all the Horsemen finding each other after a very long absence, and you’re getting little snippets of what they’ve all been doing. None of them are happy. None of them are fulfilling the promise that you assume from the previous films. We don’t get into much detail about Lula, but I think that she really still believes in the cause. Much more so than Jack, her love interest, who has sold out and now does these corporate retreats. He’s like the magic act on corporate retreats. She’s annoyed with everybody for losing the passion for it, and she’s especially annoyed at Jack. We actually had a bunch of scenes written, but it’s better that we just see little snippets of it as opposed to going so deep into the backstories. But she’s very disappointed in him, and then they find a way to rediscover their love for this magician heist life together.
Lula is irritated after the reunion, not only because she felt like she was excluded from the other Horsemen, but because Jack and the others are no longer united and focused on working toward a greater good. This is only a temporary setback, though, as she, Jack, and the rest of the Horsemen rediscover the passion for their lives as heist magicians.
Lizzy Caplan Reveals What Makes The Now You See Me Movies So Special
Caplan has starred in many well-known projects, including Freaks & Geeks and Party Down, but the Now You See Me movies rank “pretty high” when it comes to the movies and shows that fans come up and talk to her about the most. She notes that part of what makes the franchise so unique is it is loved by both children and adults, with everyone enjoying the “fun”, “original”, and “true popcorn” nature of the stories.
I feel like kids really love this movie, but then when I say that, the adult that I’m talking to says, “No, I love this movie.” I think that, for whatever reason, this alchemy of all the cast [works]. I think the reason is because you can tell we all genuinely dig each other and have a really fun time making these movies. I think that comes across. Yeah, it’s brought up not infrequently.
I think they’re fun. I think that it’s an original idea, not based on a comic book, and yet these characters who are sort of archetypal characters now. Everybody is a pretty recognizable face, and you can tell they’re just there to have a good time. What I like is that it kind of washes over you. The plots are fairly complex, but you are just on the ride. If you follow the plot, good. If you don’t, it’s also so good. But it is sort of like that. It’s just a blast; a real, true popcorn movie. And there aren’t as many of those as I would like these days that aren’t under one very specific umbrella.
Another element that Caplan appreciates about the franchise is how “everything is explained” and “said from the beginning”, but it is only when viewers rewatch that they can see “we were dangling that little tidbit the whole time.” The Now You See Me: Now You Don’t ending continues this tradition by explaining how Charlie (Justice Smith) is actually a member of the Vanderberg family.
Charlie is the mastermind behind reuniting the Horsemen and the magic that exposes the crimes committed by Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike). The reveal is shocking, but there are plenty of hints to it planted from the beginning of the story.
Now You See Me 3’s Cast & Shooting Locations Helped Create A “More Expansive” Sequel
From large ensembles to magic tricks that play out across the globe, the Now You See Me films have always had a significant scale, and yet, Caplan feels that this was further amplified in the newest installment. This is partly attributed to Caplan and Fisher getting to share the screen and work together after playing the only female member of the Horsemen in the previous films.
Caplan is grateful that the movie doesn’t ignore the significance of there being numerous female magicians in the story this time, and that it’s something Lula, Henley, and June McClure (Ariana Greenblatt) discuss and joke about in multiple scenes. She also enjoyed reuniting with Fisher after they worked together on a different movie together over a decade ago.
Turns out there’s room for more than one girl! We definitely don’t ignore the fact that it was one of us and then the other when we discuss it in this third installment. We make lots of jokes about it, as we should.
It was a blast. I worked with Isla before the second one, so 12 or 13 years ago, on a movie called Bachelorette. We have not worked together since, and we have not really seen each other since. She had done the first one before we shot that, and I did the second one after. And now, we get to join forces.
Beyond all the Horsemen coming back together, the franchise’s main cast expands with Charlie, June, and Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa) being introduced and taking on integral roles. Caplan describes them as “little tiny cute ponies” and that “introducing these younger kids…is a bit of a trip because they’re so young, and we’re so old in their minds. To us, the difference is I think how we revere Morgan Freeman. I don’t think they think we’re as spectacular Morgan Freeman, but they think we’re as old! And so that is weird because we still act like 12-year-old children, and then they bring in actual children. It really is a stark reminder that we’re very immature for our age.”
In addition to working with these cast members, shooting in Abu Dhabi and Budapest helped make the sequel feel even “more expansive” and “larger in scale” than its predecessors. Budapest stands in for many other countries throughout the story, which helps bring the globe-trotting adventure to life.
Lizzy Caplan Addresses Her Future With Now You See Me 4 & Magic
It was confirmed in April that a fourth Now You See Me movie was officially in development. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t sets this up by having June, Charlie, and Dominic being brought into the organization known as the Eye and working with the Horsemen, and Dylan Shrike (Mark Ruffalo) hinting at their next heist.
Caplan emphasizes that she would be happy to come back for the fourth film, and that in terms of what she hopes to see from Lula, she wants more of the same. Having done two of these movies, Caplan cherishes Lula’s humor, the cast’s chemistry, and how much they genuinely enjoy working together.
I would make 101 of these movies. Happily. I love making these movies. It is the most fun. It’s really kind of crazy how much we laugh all day long, like side-splitting, can’t-breathe laughter all day long. I would make them forever.
What works really well with these is just how it’s a true ensemble. You get not that much time with every character, but they’re so dialed in at this point that you don’t need to have that much time with them to know what they’re entering every scene to do. So, more of the same with Lula. I like how ridiculous she is. It makes me laugh it. I make myself laugh thinking about Lula.
When it comes to magic, Caplan trained with doves for a trick that Lula performs in Now You See Me 2, and acknowledges how challenging it is “trying not to look [overwhelmed]” and to “look cool” when working with doves. For the third film, though, she didn’t have to attend “magic school” due to her character’s more limited role and “pretty contained” tricks.
I didn’t have to go to magic school this time around because my tricks were pretty contained. So, while the rest of them had to do magic school and hone their crafts again, which would’ve been completely necessary for me because I didn’t keep it up between movies. I had to do something in the second movie that I have to do a brief pop of in the third, which is stuff with doves. And I think no matter how hard you practice with doves, from what I can tell, it’s still birds flapping in your face. I don’t know how people look cool doing it, but that is the extent of my magic training, trying not to look [overwhelmed] with the doves.
Caplan also reveals which magic trick scene from the two movies has been her favorite and what kind of illusion she would perform if she could pull one off in real life.
In the second film, we do the big, huge magic trick where we’re passing a chip to each other. That took a week to shoot, and that was really cool. And then in this one, there’s this stuff in this big cube, and we were in the cube for a week. It fills with sand, and it fills with water. They built that so quickly. It’s an amazing thing that they made, and it was really fun. Thank God we like each other. You don’t want to be locked in a cube for a week with people who annoy you. But we were messing around while also taking our work very seriously the entire time. Lots of water, lots of water, lots of sand, lots of water, sand, water, sand, water, sand.
I wish that I wasn’t impressed by all the gross-out stuff, but I really am. I hate looking at it, but I’m impressed by it all that geek magic, which is what Lula does. Very David Blaine, like putting shards of glass in his eyeballs and stuff like that. I mean, that’s pretty cool.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is playing in theaters.
- Release Date
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November 12, 2025
- Runtime
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112 minutes
- Director
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Ruben Fleischer
- Writers
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Rhett Reese, Seth Grahame-Smith, Michael Lesslie, Paul Wernick, Eric Warren Singer, Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt
- Producers
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Alex Kurtzman, Bobby Cohen
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Jesse Eisenberg
J. Daniel Atlas
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Woody Harrelson
Merritt McKinney