As Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera hits cinemas in the US, the film’s director has revealed that a third film is further along than anybody realised.
While Michael Mann is still figuring out how to make Heat 2 some 30 years after the original, the team behind Den Of Thieves, the Heat-inspired 2018 cop heist drama, is moving a lot faster. Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera has already debuted in the US with a UK release coming soon. We’re still awaiting official release details, but we know it’s coming over here.
In the US? It’s already a solid hit. Adding a fancy-sounding Spanish word to the title’s suffix seems to have done the film’s release no harm at all. It topped the US box office in its opening weekend, drew in a tidy $15m, and has been picking up decent reviews.
While it’s nothing compared to the three decades between Heat and Heat 2, we’ve had to wait six years for a follow-up to Den Of Thieves, proving that even Gerard Butler’s excellently-named Nicholas ‘Big Nick’ O’Brien and his ultra-macho cohort of hyper-masculine cops aren’t immune to the impact of Hollywood strikes and a global pandemic.
However, the gap between Pantera and a third Den Of Thieves film might not be as long this time around. The director of both films, Christian Gudegast, has been chatting to The Hollywood Reporter and revealed that “It’s already pitched. It’s already done. We’re ready to go. We’re feeling very good about it.”
Does that mean Den Of Thieves 3 could be entering production this year? It’s not impossible and Pantera’s decent box office outing will only have made Gudegast’s pitch seem all the more enticing to financiers. 2018’s Den Of Thieves really found its audiences on streaming so if Pantera can do the same, on top of its decent box office run, a third film seems like a certainty.
When we hear more on that front, or a release date for Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera, we’ll let you know right here. Until then, here’s the synopsis and the trailer for the newly-released (in the US at least) sequel.
Having plotted to rob the Federal Reserve Bank in the first film, this time the crew will be aiming for an equally-impossible take. Butler’s Big Nick is back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie (Jackson Jr.) who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange.
