Posted in: Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: now you see me 3

Now You See Me 3: Justice Smith And Dominic Sessa Join The Cast

Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa have joined the cast of Now You See Me 3 with Ariana Greenblatt. The film doesn't have a release date.

Now You See Me 3 was part of the early pitch of the Lionsgate presentation at CinemaCon, and considering how long that film has been in development, it was nice to end this long trek through development hell. The film has a director and writers, but now the cast is beginning to fill out. Yesterday, there was a report that Ariana Greenblatt was joining the cast, and later that night, Lionsgate sent out a press release not only confirming that Greenblatt is joining the cast but also confirming that Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa were cast. The release also said "It is expected that original cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Morgan Freeman will join them to reprise their roles." That differs from the report that Deadline put out that listed Mark Ruffalo as a returning member. We don't have anything regarding a summary, and the logline is being kept a secret for no. However, the release said, "The new film returns audiences to the thieving illusionists known as the Four Horseman while introducing audiences to a new generation of magicians."

Smith has been in quite a few good little movies in the last couple of years, including Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which not enough of you went to see, and Detective Pikachu, which was so much better than it had any right to be. He was also in the latter two entries of the recent Jurassic World trilogy. Sessa exploded onto the acting scene with The Holdovers as his first big screen performance, for which he [rightfully] got critical acclaim. It's lovely to see that he's already being picked up for big franchise films like Now You See Me 3, but we can hope he still does some dramatic stuff. Someone will pull an Oscar-winning performance out of Sessa sooner rather than later.

Now You See Me…Hanging Out In Development Hell

Now You See Me was released in 2013 and followed a group of magicians pulling off tricks that had real-world consequences and the police officers who were trying to track them down. While the first film wasn't exactly a critical smash, it did well enough, and audiences seemed to connect with the film. It had a modest budget of $75 million and made over $350 million at the worldwide box office, along with a cast of likable stars with a chemistry that was fun enough to watch. So it wasn't surprising when a sequel rolled into theaters in 2016 with a few cast changes. The budget was as high as $120 million, and the movie made $334 million at the worldwide box office. While that isn't anything to sneeze at, it's not great either, and the reviews on this one were much harsher. Still, they powered on, and before the second film was in theaters, there were talks of a third film.

However, things very much stalled from there. It seemed like things were moving at a decent pace, with Caplan saying she would be returning along with John M. Chu, who directed Now You See Me 2, who was also set to return. In December 2016, there were reports that Benedict Cumberbatch would join the cast. However, we heard nothing about the film until 2020, when some movement finally occurred. Fleischer was brought on to direct in September 2022, and at CinemaCon in April 2024, Lionsgate confirmed that pre-production is underway, but we don't have a release date yet. So there is a chance it could be a full decade, or close to, between the releases of Now You See Me 2 and Now You See Me 3.

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