Ten years is a long time to wait for a sequel.
When Now You See Me 2 hit theaters in 2016, fans expected another trick to follow soon after. Lionsgate first announced plans for a third installment in 2015, but the project drifted in and out of development for years as scripts changed and creative teams shifted. The franchise lingered in uncertainty, its future as elusive as one of the Horsemen’s own illusions.
That wait is finally over. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t brings the Horsemen back together under the direction of Ruben Fleischer, who approached the film not just as a continuation but as a new sleight of hand. The result is a movie designed to feel like a performance in itself, where every reveal and reversal becomes part of one grand illusion.
For this Screen Rant cover story, we have beautiful, exclusive art to reveal (above) alongside new first look stills from the film. I also arranged interviews for our host Ash Crossan with director Ruben Fleischer, producer Bobby Cohen, returning Horsemen Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, and Isla Fisher, as well as new cast members Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, and Rosamund Pike.
Together, they reveal how Now You See Me: Now You Don’t came to life, what sets Fleischer’s version apart, how the magic of the Horsemen continues to evolve, and what’s next…
The Road to Now You See Me 3
How Now You See Me: Now You Don’t Finally Happened After a Decade of Delays
The path back to the screen was as unpredictable as one of the Horsemen’s tricks.
After several false starts and rewrites, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t finally found its rhythm under director Ruben Fleischer, who wanted to recapture what made the first film so captivating.
“When I first got involved the script didn’t feel like Now You See Me,” Fleischer tells Screen Rant. “It kind of felt like a generic action movie where the magic had kind of muted or morphed more towards a poor man’s Mission: Impossible. I really worked hard to revert to the original thing, which was magicians on stage performing tricks.”
Producer Bobby Cohen, who helped build and then oversee the franchise since its beginning, explains why it took so long to reach that point.
“It took longer to make the third because these movies are deceptively tricky to make. You have to come up with new variations on magic that you haven’t seen before. You don’t want to feel like you are just re-skinning what you’ve done before. You need to have a great villain. And so we went through a bunch of false starts, things that we had a nugget of an idea. ‘Oh, that could be interesting!’ And then you go down that path, and then you hit the wall, and then you go back, and you try it again. Some of it is just the nature of Hollywood and the Lionsgate change – the people that run the studio changed. When that happens, there’s a reᴀssessment and then coming back and saying, ‘Hey, you know what? We believe that we can make another one.'”
“Now that some time has pᴀssed, by the time this movie comes out, it will be close to 10 years from the time the second movie came out. My actors are older,” recalls Cohen on the decade-long gap which he explains is a blessing in disguise. “They’re in a different place in their lives. The characters are in different places in their lives. Knowing that gave us a whole different set of where you can start, which then led to this idea of, ‘Okay, what if now this team has to meet a new team?'”
That pᴀssage of time gave the reunion extra weight. “It’s amazing because I’ve known the core cast for nearly 15 years now and it truly felt like no time pᴀssed at all when we reunited,” says Dave Franco. “We just have so much genuine affection for each other and I think that really shows on screen.”
Isla Fisher agrees, calling it “so nice to be back with the guys” and crediting Fleischer’s direction for bringing the energy back to the set.
For Jesse Eisenberg, stepping into Daniel Atlas again meant returning to a side of himself he rarely gets to show. “This is my favorite character to play in the world. It’s the confident magician who wears nice clothing. It’s just the opposite of everything I get to do ever.”
Ruben Fleischer’s Vision And Connections
Director Ruben Fleischer on Reinventing Now You See Me for a New Era And Reuniting With His Favorite Stars
The key to reviving Now You See Me 3 was finding a director who understood both the magic and the ensemble behind it.
“Bringing Ruben on board, who had worked with Woody and Jesse before, was such a huge thing because I have a great relationship with these actors, and Ruben had a great relationship with the actors,” explains producer Bobby Cohen. “And so much about the buy-in, I think for the audience in these movies, and I really believe this and I think this is about true with movies in general, I suspect you agree: when the audience feels like the actors are having fun actually making the movie, not just their characters, but when you have a sense that, boy, that looks like that was a lot of fun to make, it gives the audience this extra special meta pleasure.”
When Ruben Fleischer joined Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, he wanted to make the film feel like the illusion itself. Every scene, he tells Screen Rant, should contain a surprise or reveal that only this series could deliver.
“There are the tricks that happen within the movie, but then it was really important to me that the movie as a whole kind of work is a magic trick and that there be a big rug pull or reveal for the audience at the end of the film. And I kind of felt like we couldn’t make the movie unless we came up with a really great reveal,” Fleischer says.
“Throughout the movie, obviously there’s magic peppered in everywhere, and it was really fun trying to come up with ideas that they hadn’t done before. And staging of sequences, using tricks like every action sequence, we challenge ourselves what is specific to this that no other movie could have because it doesn’t start a band of magicians in the midst of the fray.”
Fleischer’s reputation for balancing action, humor, and ensemble chemistry (something emphasized by everyone we spoke to for the third Now You See Me) made him a natural fit for the series.. “They’re just so funny. And I think that’s part of why people love these movies is because the cast is just so charming, and you just want to hang out with them,” he says. “It’s funny, but action and magic and exciting, and it has a little bit of everything. It just is a classic popcorn movie I would say.”
The cast and crew describe his approach the same way. Jesse Eisenberg calls him “a huge comedy nerd” who loves to let actors experiment. Dave Franco later told us, “Ruben comes from a comedy background, and so he really wanted everyone to lean into the levity and the fun and the comedy whenever possible. Obviously, there are certain moments in the film where you want it to be more dramatic and have the stakes be really serious, but he’s just one of those guys. He’s like, if we can make this moment funny, let’s do it.”
Producer Bobby Cohen calls Fleischer “a great ringleader” who knows how to keep the energy up on set. “Beyond me being such an admirer of Ruben’s films and the kind of energy and the buoyancy that he brings, and his eye for humor and always intuitively understanding where the heart of the movie is, I knew that he’s a great cheerleader and a great ringleader, and that was part of it.”
Rosamund Pike, who joins the series as Veronika Vanderberg, says Fleischer’s commitment to practical magic was central to his vision. “He makes movies for fans. I think he makes movies that are big and that are cinematic and he wants the magic to be for real. He loves the history of it. He loves the theories of it. He loves knowing that things happen for real and he loves the characters. I mean he was a joy to work with.”
For Fleischer, the real magic wasn’t just in the tricks but in the people performing them. His approach created an atmosphere where the returning Horsemen could rediscover their rhythm while a new generation stepped into the spotlight.
The Four Horsemen Ride Again
Reuniting the Cast of Now You See Me and Introducing the Next Generation
When the curtain rises on Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, the Horsemen have gone their separate ways in the years since the first two films.
“The Horsemen as we knew them are no more,” Fleischer says. “Henley’s busy being a mom, Merritt’s off in Mexico drinking himself to death, Jack’s become a cheesy cruise ship magician, and it’s only Atlas who’s still working for The Eye.”
The story of the threequel brings them together through a new generation of magicians, mirroring what was happening behind the scenes. “There was this kind of real-life parallel,” Fleischer says. “The young actors grew up on these movies, idolizing the Horsemen. And off set, it was the same dynamic.”
Producer Bobby Cohen saw that connection firsthand. “The three of them didn’t know each other, and they are best friends now for life,” he says. “The dynamic in the third movie started to emulate the dynamic on set because everyone reveres Woody and Jesse and Morgan.”
For the newcomers, joining the franchise felt like stepping into a world they’d grown up watching. Ariana Greenblatt, who plays June, recalls, “I remember seeing in the second movie that long sequence of them breaking with the card. That whole choreographed sequence was so cool to me.” Dominic Sessa, who plays Bosco, adds, “I saw the first movie when I was really young, before I’d even thought about acting. It’s very full circle.” And Justice Smith, who plays Charlie, says, “He’s a huge magic nerd, knows everything about magic history. He’s a huge fan of the Horsemen and so being recruited by Daniel Atlas is his dream come true.”
Together, the old and new Horsemen form the film’s emotional through line. “We haven’t seen each other in a long time so there’s a lot of bickering, a lot of finger pointing about why we broke up,” says Dave Franco. “But Jack will literally do anything for his friends.”
That sense of connection between generations became the film’s heart. It’s a story about rediscovering trust, teamwork, and the thrill of pulling off something impossible.
Bigger Tricks, Higher Stakes
Behind the Scenes of the Illusions in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
The magic of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t was built on scale and precision. Ruben Fleischer and his team set out to make the illusions feel authentic, designing sequences that could hold up as real performances rather than computer effects.
“I love all the action that happens in the Chateau,” Fleischer says. “All those visual optical illusion rooms were really fun to conceive of and execute.”
The production expanded across continents, pushing the ensemble through long nights. “We sH๏τ the majority of the film in Hungary and then all flew to Abu Dhabi where it was 95 degrees at 10 PM and the entirety of the work we did there was at night,” Fleischer recalls. “It was wild but visually it’s some of the most impressive parts of the movie.”
Practical magic was at the center of everything. Dave Franco says, “I could throw some cards if you had some, but yeah this is something that I learned on the first movie. It was me in my apartment in New Orleans just throwing cards against the wall until my arm went ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. But I got really good to the point where I can now cut a banana in half with a card.”
The new cast brought that same focus to learning real sleight of hand. “Jesse and Dom got to do a lot of kind of hand dexterity stuff which were practically done, no VFX,” Franco says. “That was them just spending months learning how to pᴀss cards between their fingers.”
Rosamund Pike describes the craftsmanship behind the sets. “All the Ames rooms and the hall of mirrors and all the trickery were created for real. Whenever we did a single-take sH๏τ, everybody would jump in to celebrate the magic in another’s performance.”
An Ames room, invented in 1935 by American scientist Adelbert Ames Jr., is a distorted room design that creates an optical illusion where people appear to dramatically change size depending on where they stand. You can appear tiny in one corner, and giant in the other.
For producer Bobby Cohen, that authenticity is what defines the franchise. “If you can make the whole movie a trick, if the movie itself is one giant magic trick, that’s the key. That’s the big idea.”
The result is a film that embraces spectacle without losing the intimacy of performance. Every illusion is built from the same idea that started the series: that movie magic should feel like something that could actually happen right in front of you.
Franchise Future
What’s Next for the Now You See Me Franchise After Now You See Me: Now You Don’t
By the time filming wrapped, the future of Now You See Me was already in motion. Lionsgate had seen enough to commit to another sequel before the third film was even finished and it was officially announced at CinemaCon in April.
“The studio called with a week to go and said, we’ve seen enough, let’s get going on the fourth movie,” says producer Bobby Cohen. “Normally, studios want to wait until opening weekend or at a minimum wait until they see the rough cut, but we were still shooting and they were like, let’s get going.”
For Ruben Fleischer, that confidence came from how much fun the cast and crew had making the film. “There was a general excitement from the studio, the cast, and myself that this was so much fun to make,” he says. “We can imagine going on many more adventures with these characters.”
Dave Franco already has ideas about where those adventures could go. “I want to see one of the core characters become the villain and maybe see some faces from the first two movies come back,” he says.
Rosamund Pike, who plays the film’s central antagonist, reflects on the larger illusion that ties the franchise together. “The only thing that really makes diamonds valuable is the magic trick of convincing the world that they’re rare and worth so much money,” she says. “Isn’t that the best magic trick of all?”
The next chapter is already in development, but like any great illusion, its details remain hidden and the cast would only joke about potential тιтles with us. What Now You See Me: Now You Don’t makes clear is that the magic still works, and the expanding team of Horsemen are not done performing yet.
