Alright so it’s a moderately well-know fact in the social circles I exist in that I fucking love the Now You See Me movies. I admit they are objectively not good movies but even so, I hesitate to even call them “guilty pleasures” because tbh I feel no guilt about this whatsoever. Specifically, I really love the second film, Now You See Me 2 (CRIMINALLY not called Now You Don’t like genuinely that is SO easy why would they not call it that???) because of the iconic card-throwing scene, but also just because I believe it was trying a lot less to make sense, which in a movie like this, is a good thing. I love a good heist movie, and I especially love overly dramatic lore that has extreme implications for the world the movie exists in. (What does the Eye do???? Is this just a world full of extremely powerful magicians??? How is it possible for Thaddeus Bradley to make a whole show debunking magicians?? How many magicians are notable enough for him to bother with them?? What happened in between Dylan’s dad dying and the first movie that put him in this position??? how long IS his game???) <= These are just some of the questions that come from watching them a couple too many times, and trust me, I could go on about my questions about The Eye, and I’m not even going to get into how impossible some of their “tricks” are.
Anyways, a third film has reportedly been in the works since even before the second movie was released in 2016, but little to no information is available, with the project changing both directors and writers several times, which is very rarely ever a good sign. Again though, with a movie like that maybe that literally doesn’t matter at all. But I just don’t know how much faith I have in it. So, I would like to propose some ideas for this film, just in case whoever ends up writing it starts googling around for ideas and comes across this. I understand the odds of this are slim, but as I’ve said time and time again, this is really more for me than anyone else. That being said, if you do happen to be the writer of Now You See Me 3: Hello! I’m glad you’re here. I appreciate you being receptive to my ideas and ask that you email me in order to discuss the possibility of collaborating. Hmu at hoaxgirl2000@gmail.com.
(note: my original idea for this post was to give a marxist critique of the series, but i was plagued by visions in the middle of that, and decided to do this instead. if there is interest in that idea, i may revisit it at a later date.)
Oh, and warning about spoilers for the first two movies, which do rely VERY heavily on their twist endings, so I do suggest you watch them before reading further. (and thenone, watch them both again because they are 100% funnier after knowing what’s going on) But, if you can’t be bothered to do that, I guess you can read if you want. I certainly can’t stop you.
Okay so step one, I think we can just go ahead and call this one Now You See Me 3: Now You Don’t” Is that stupid, considering the second one was just Now You See Me 2? Absolutely. However, it drives me so crazy that they didn’t use it that I think we can just slap it one this one.
I think we need to take it back to the good old fashion United States of America. Now You See Me 2 notably takes place mainly in Macau, with the finale in London. This is because they wanted it to have a bigger feel, and making it an international story could do that, and it’s DEFINITELY not because the first movie made a lot of money in China and they wanted an excuse to have Chinese celebrities and music. (The director, Jon Chu (yes the guy who directed Crazy Rich Asians) actually is Chinese but knowing blockbusters, I have do doubt that was why this choice was made. see: Transformers: Age of Instinction (Actually don’t, just trust me on this one)) I think for this one, we should not only return to America, but to the South. There is a portion of the first movie that takes place in New Orleans, and actually serves to poorly call out its treatment after Hurricane Katrina, but I want more than that. I want some deep south magicians. I think this could be done by exploring the backstory of Merritt (Woody Harrelson,) and of course, his twin, Chase. Mainly because they just kinda vaguely allude to their backstory, saying that Chase stole all everything from Merritt, and don’t really go into what that means. Also, I think it would be important to bring Chase back because I find it egregious that they gave one of their characters in their heist movie an IDENTICAL TWIN and then did not do any sort of switching places or anything fun like that. Now, this was because the two were on different sides, with Chase being aligned with Arthur Tressler (Michael Cain) and Walter Mabry. (Daniel Radcliffe) But, I have a solution to this that I’ll get to later. Anyways, I think that their identical-ness could allow for some good magic nonsense. Another reason it’s a great idea to set this movie in the south is that I think the Horseman could do with the Hannah Montana: The Movie treatment. 
They have to learn to rely less on wild showmanship and focus instead on like, old school simple magic. Which yeah, is stupid because it’s MAGIC, the whole point is showmanship. But, I kinda don’t care. Mainly, I want this because I’m writing this while listening to the Cars soundtrack, and I think that a card scene fight (similar to the bullshit one in the first movie where Jack is throwing cards at Dylan and he is pretending(??) to be hurt by them) set to “Real Gone” by Shania Twain would be a really good addition. Yes, this is extremely specific but I have foreseen it. Trust me on this. I just only think this would work if the movie was set in the south. This is also something you just have to trust me on.
So, we are gonna be in the South. I’m thinking they're gonna be on the road for a lot of it. I’m thinking a sort of “Bonnie and Clyde but they are just magician thieves” kinda thing. However, there WILL still be a big flashy end show that totally contradicts what I said about showmanship earlier. I think the campy, Grand Ole Opry aesthetic would be very fun. Also, just a note about that marxist reading i didn’t end up doing: I think that the south would be an interesting place to explore the class commentary they kinda tried to do in the first two. J.Daniel Atlas (Jessie Eisenberg) is definitely a classist asshole despite the whole Robin Hood shtick and I think it would be interesting to confront that. Why are they in the south? I don’t know. The Eye wants them to do something. I’m not writing the whole movie for you.
Okay, I can hear you screaming through the screen “Frances, what character is going to be revealed to have known about everything the whole time despite that really not making any sense????” and to me, the answer is obvious. Tressler (Cain) has somehow known about The Eye the whole time. It’s the only way to one-up learning that Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman) knew about everything in the second one. I don’t think they’ll go as far as to have him been a part of The Eye the whole time, because I think that would cross the line of making zero sense. I think instead we reveal that there has been a secret evil force this whole time. I genuinely have no idea what The Eye does outside of organizing The Horseman’s heists, so i think giving them some sort of enemy would explain some things. (However it would NOT explain why that guy from the card vault is part of The Eye?? What was that about????) I was going to say that perhaps there is a secret rich people society that control things and the Eye fights them, but that would definitely get very anti-semitic very fast, so we are not doing that. Instead, I think there should be evil magicians. An Evil Eye, if you will. Somehow, Tressler going to jail has been part of his plan the whole time and has worked to further whatever agenda the evil magicians have. I also think we could get some fun performances of evil magicians. I definitely think a hot lady villain magician would be a plus (I want Anne Hathaway in Ocean’s Eight energy). And, Atlas will get approached by the evil magicians and he will genuinely consider working with them because he is all power-hungry. (yes, I am going to backtrack his character development from the second one, because I simply did not buy it) Also, Dylan (Marc Ruffalo) is gonna be on the same level as the other Horsemen because I do not get the point of their chain of command.
This is all well and good, but I do have one idea that I think is vital to this being a good follow-up. They gotta bring Daniel Radcliffe back as Walter Mabry. I don’t know if it’s just that I love all of Daniel Radcliffe’s post-Harry Potter performances, but I just really enjoyed him in the second movie. Really, I think he should play the eccentric somewhat queer-coded villain in every movie from now on. However, I think that he should get a redemption arc. Controversial, perhaps, because he actively tried to kill Dylan via traumatic dad-killing safe, but hey, water under the bridge. (get it?????) But one of my personal favourite trope is “villain that has been begrudgingly redeemed and is just kinda around” and I really think he’d be good at it. Also, we’re gonna be redeeming Chase for the sake of twin hijinks, so who really cares? The Horseman are gonna need Walter for some computer bullshit, and they can go visit him in jail. He’ll be like “hey, why should i help you” and then they can reveal to him that his dad got himself out of jail (via being rich) and not only left Walter behind, but also continues to deny him being his son. Flimsy motivation? Yes. But I cannot stress how much that does not matter. I really think redeemed Walter will be the key to this movie being good. It could be hard to get Daniel Radcliffe back, but I truly believe that if they make the movie weird enough, he will come back.
Lastly, I think they should bring back the tarot card roles from the first movie. If you recall, Atlas was The Lover (which?? I still don’t understand how they could cast Jessie Eisenberg as the sexy charismatic one when Dave Franco is right there) Merritt was The Hermit, Jack was Death, Dylan was The Fool, and Henley was The High Priestess. Henley will not be returning, both because I don’t think Isla Fisher would come back, but also because she was boring and I don’t care about her. But also, good for her for dumping Atlas. Lula can get her own card, and I just think it would be fun to bring that aesthetic back.
Really, this is all I have. Admittedly, it is not a lot, but I think these are some solid ideas. As for the other characters, I guess Jack and Lula can still be together, and provide pithy comic relief because really who cares about them. I guess it would be interesting to develop the relationship between Dylan and Thaddeus more, as I still don’t fully get what the hell Thaddeus was talking about when he was like “haha yes, I let you frame me for several robberies because i could tell you just weren’t over your daddy issues yet.” Also, I guess the FBI still exists and actively knows about Dylan being in on it the whole time. So, I say we bring back the French lady detective from the first movie and reveal that she is ALSO a secret society Eye magician. (i tricked you! you thought it was just going to be Tressler but i tricked you!) She is back on the case and is now the one sabotaging the cops. She has also known about this all the whole time, including the fact that Dylan was in on it. She was impressed by his dedication to running around New Orleans with a tracker on himself for no reason.
Thank you for taking the time to indulge my fevered rant. I do also like good movies, but hey, you can talk about that anywhere. This is a safe space for all the Now You See Me stans. ♥♥♥