It’s no secret that Hollywood really loves sequels. There is a lot of guesswork and hope when it comes to releasing a movie, so when a particular title finds an audience and legitimately succeeds, the industry tries to capitalize in every way possible – including the development of a follow-up feature. Understanding this, the fact that Will Ferrell has never made an Elf 2 is all kinds of surprising, but the reason it hasn’t happened makes plenty of sense.
You may remember that Elf, directed by a pre-Iron Man Jon Favreau, was a massive hit in 2003, earning over $200 million worldwide, and Will Ferrell recently explained the lack of a sequel to the beloved Christmas movie as a guest on the podcast Happy Sad Confused. The beloved comedian was asked about a sequel never coming together after the box office windfall, and he noted that there was a legitimate effort for a second film that just never crossed the finish line. Said Ferrell,
There was a lot of movement after the film initially came out of which I maintained that it’s gonna be really hard because it’s a classic fish out of water story, but prove me wrong. And an attempt was made at a script which tried its best, but I was just like ‘I don’t know.’
In Elf, Will Ferrell plays Buddy, an ordinary human who crawled into Santa Claus’ present bag as a baby and was raised at the North Pole thinking he was a mystical being and preparing Christmas gifts. The film is in part a journey of self-discovery as he understands the truth about who and what he really is… and it evidently proved tremendously difficult to create a proper follow-up story to that kind of character arc.
Getting super honest, Ferrell admitted that he could have made a whole lot of money if he had just said “yes” when he was first offered the chance to make an Elf 2… but he says it also would have meant him telling the truth on the press tour for the sequel and telling reporters that the movie was purely created as a cash grab:
And I was offered a crazy amount of money. But, I was like ‘I have to be able to sit in a setting like this and talk about the movie in a way that I feel good about.’ And I was talking to my manager going ‘Look, if I were to promote that movie, I’d be literally saying ‘I did it for the money.” Straight up. I’m like ‘Do you want that messaging out there?’
Of course, just because the creatives behind the original Elf couldn’t come up with a proper way to develop a sequel doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been plenty of clamoring for the project. People watch or rewatch the hit Christmas comedy every year, and it frequently inspires discourse about a follow-up story that tells the continuing adventures of Buddy. Sadly, it sounds like such a film is never going to happen.
The movie will forever remain a favorite title among Will Ferrell fans, regardless of whether or not it ever gets a sequel, as its celebrated for featuring one of Ferrell’s best performances and some of the greatest, funniest lines of his career. Typically, Elf is saved for viewings around Christmas time, but if you want to get in the holiday spirit here in late February, the film is available for purchase digitally via major online outlets and is on both 4K UHD and on Blu-ray.
