Last year, Netflix made a big splash when it picked up Red Notice from Universal Pictures, and the film went on to become one of the most popular movies on the streaming platform. That was largely due to the incredible star power of Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds in the leading roles. Now, Deadline is reporting that Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds are all expected to return for Red Notice 2 and Red Notice 3. Additionally, Netflix has ambitious plans to shoot both sequels back-to-back.
While the plan is to begin filming next year, that isn’t yet set in stone. Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds have extremely busy schedules, and it will be a challenge to line all three of them up again. That’s one of the reasons why the sequels are also reportedly expanding the cast beyond the core trio. Deadline’s report compares Red Notice‘s expanded roster of characters to the Ocean’s Eleven films, which featured an all-star cast. Director and screenwriter Rawson Marshall Thurber is also slated to return, and he has reportedly also begun writing the sequels.
Netflix is notorious for keeping its viewing numbers close to the vest, but the commitment to two more installments of Red Notice suggests that it really was one of the platform’s top films of 2021. Netflix also made a recent deal to film two sequels to Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out.
The first Red Notice introduced Johnson’s character, Special Agent John Hartley, an expert criminal profiler who was on the hunt for two of the greatest art thieves in the world; Nolan Booth (Reynolds); and Sarah Black, aka The Bishop (Gadot). After Sarah arranged for Nolan’s capture, she framed John for the theft of a bejeweled egg that supposedly belonged to Cleopatra centuries before. That led Nolan and John to make an unlikely alliance to escape prison in order to find the remaining egg before Sarah could.
Red Notice‘s ending also appeared to suggest future adventures with this trio, so today’s news wasn’t entirely unexpected. If filming does begin in 2023, then Red Notice 2 and Red Notice 3 may arrive on Netflix as soon as 2024. However, it’s also possible that Netflix may release the sequels a year or more apart from each other.
