Now You See Me 4 Status & Mark Ruffalo's Potential Return Gets Major Update From Director

The article contains major spoilers for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t ending.

Now You See Me 4 gets a major update from director Ruben Fleischer, including the status of Mark Ruffalo’s potential return. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is finally in theaters after the franchise’s nine-year hiatus, where the original Horsemen team up with a new generation of magicians. While the franchise has hit a milestone, Lionsgate confirmed that a fourth movie was in development.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Fleischer shared that development for Now You See 4 is “still in the writing process.” Even though it’s in the early stages, the director promises that the next installment “will continue the theme of globetrotting magical adventures involving some heists and some performances, and continuing to tell the story of these eight great magicians.“

The third installment has the original and new magicians facing the villain Veronika Vanderberg, who uses her diamond company to launder money. The trouble-making illusionists succeed by the end of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, as Justice Smith’s Charles is revealed to be the mastermind behind the heist and the half-brother of Veronika, whom she believed was dead.

While Lizzy Caplan’s Lula eventually joined the Horsemen halfway through the film, Ruffalo’s Dylan was not involved with the scheme. The Horsemen revealed that he was imprisoned in Russia after a mission had gone wrong, which led to the original team’s breakup. However, Ruffalo made a quick appearance in the closing moments, as Dylan shared in a hologram that he had escaped, initiated the new members into The Eye, and concluded with: “You thought your work was done? You’re just getting started.“

Despite Dylan’s absence in the third installment, the filmmaker shared that he “will play a bigger role in the next adventure, pending Mark Ruffalo’s schedule.“ Fleischer elaborated the following concerning Ruffalo’s involvement and why he missed the third movie:

“Unfortunately, he’s a very busy guy, and they may or may not be making seven more Avengers movies, so we’ll see about Mark Ruffalo’s availability. But my hope for the movie would certainly be to have more Dylan in the film. I’m going to tell you a little secret, which is that originally he wasn’t even going to be in this movie because he wasn’t available at all during our principal photography.”

“Luckily, at that time, he was available to be shot on greenscreen independent of our shoot, but still, we managed to get him in there. Obviously, we would have preferred him to be knocking on the door and coming into the scene [at the end in person], but he is a busy man, and the hologram version of Dylan was one that I was more than happy to accept.“

Alongside Fleischer returning as the director, Bobby Cohen will also come back to produce the fourth installment with Secret Hideout’s Alex Kurtzman and Lionsgate’s Meredith Wieck. There are no confirmations on which cast members will return, as that will likely come down to their scheduling and other contractual negotiations.

Now You See Me 3 became the best-rated movie in the franchise, holding a 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes. As of writing, it appears that the movie will be no. 1 at the box office during its debut weekend ahead of The Running Man, with its total expected to be around $21 million and $24 million domestically.

Currently, Now You See Me 4 does not have a release date, although more updates are expected in the future.

First Film

Now You See Mee

Character(s)

J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, Lula May, Jack Wilder, Dylan Rhodes, Thaddeus Bradley, Arthur Tressler, Alma Dray

Comic Release Date

213392,214182