Before his passing in July 2022, James Caan, who played Will Ferrell‘s biological father in the Christmas classic Elf, revealed why a sequel to the 2003 hit never happened.
In an interview, he shared that despite the cast, including Zooey Deschanel and Mary Steenburgen, being keen for a reunion, tension on set stopped the idea from becoming a reality.
“We were gonna do it and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I finally got a franchise movie, I could make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do’,” he joked.
However, he revealed on 92.3 Sports Radio: “But the director and Will didn’t get along very well.”
Despite being offered a staggering $29 million, Will refused to return for a sequel.
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He even said it would be ‘pathetic’ to try and remake Elf.
“I just think it would look slightly pathetic if I tried to squeeze back in the elf tights. Buddy the middle-aged Elf,” he quipped on Watch What Happens Live.
Will was 35 when he first donned the famous green costume in November 2003.
He won many fans for his role as Buddy the Elf, a human raised by elves, in the Christmas film directed by Jon Favreau, who also made a brief appearance as Doctor Leonardo.
The film, made on a budget of $32 million (£25.5 million), grossed an impressive $220 million (£175,000) worldwide and has remained a popular Christmas favorite.
On the film’s 10th anniversary, director Favreau shared how he got involved.
“They were looking for somebody to rewrite it and possibly direct it,” he told Rolling Stone.
“And I remember reading it, and it clicked – if I made the world that he was from as though he grew up as an elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, one of those Rankin/Bass Christmas specials I grew up with, then everything fell into place tonally. So for a year, I rewrote the script.”
Favreau said the script then went from PG to PG-13. “He was a darker character in the script I had read originally.
“The character became a bit more innocent,” he said. “And the world became more of a pastiche of the Rankin/Bass films. The studio [New Line] read it and agreed to make it, and that’s when I was brought on to direct.”
Although Elf never had a sequel, it did inspire the musical Elf: The Musical and the animated TV special Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.
Elf is available to watch on Sky Go and Now Cinema.
An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.
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