Before titles like John Wick became the gold standard for sleek and stylish action choreography, action fiends were already getting their fix with Gareth Evans‘ The Raid – a film that would go on to inspire the Keanu Reeves-led franchise. Released in 2011 to both critical and commercial acclaim, The Raid was followed by The Raid 2 (also known as The Raid: Retaliation) in 2014, which met with similar success. Since then, fans have eagerly awaited a third installment to complete the trilogy. Though Evans developed a script several years ago, the project never materialized. Now, more than a decade after the last film, Evans continues to ruminate on new ideas he could take the film, recently teasing that a trilogy could still become a reality.
Since The Raid 2, Evans has continued to leave his mark on Hollywood. Renowned for putting Indonesia’s pencak silat martial arts on the global map, the action maestro has continued to flex his directorial skills. His best work since has been the British crime series Gangs of London, which he created, wrote, and directed. He recently helmed the Tom Hardy-led action thriller Havoc, which just debuted on Netflix. While promoting Havoc in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Evans offered a tantalizing update on the future of The Raid franchise, revealing that he has a brand-new story idea for a potential sequel. However, this isn’t the first time he’s explored a continuation. Evans shared that he once envisioned The Raid 3 picking up immediately after the final moments of The Raid 2, but competing projects and other commitments eventually pulled him away, and that original concept was ultimately shelved:
“I’ll see when it can happen, if it can happen, is my really sort of non-committal answer to that question. Initially, I had a concept that would’ve followed immediately after the back of The Raid 2. It was set literally minutes after the second one finished, but then I got busy with other projects, and then, before I even had time to think about it, so many years had passed that I couldn’t do that version of that film anymore. So I kind of just left it and cast it aside and thought, ‘Okay, well, I was happy with where we finished in The Raid 2, so I’m probably not going to do another version, not do a third part. So I just dismissed it outright.”
Gareth Evans’ Reunion With Iko Uwais Reignited His Interest in ‘The Raid 3’
While Evans was careful not to raise fan expectations, he revealed that a recent meet-up with The Raid star Iko Uwais, who played the film’s protagonist, reignited his interest in revisiting the series. According to Evans, it had been years since they had seen each other in person, despite keeping in touch through regular WhatsApp chats. That face-to-face meeting sparked fresh inspiration for a possible third film:
“I hadn’t seen Iko in maybe seven years, and it was the first time we’d met each other in a long time. We keep in touch, we WhatsApp each other all the time, but this was the first time I’d seen him in a long time. And I’ve always seen Iko, because of the nature of how we met and the projects we’ve done, as my younger kid brother. And then, seeing him after the seven-year gap of time, I was kind of struck by how much he’d grown, how much he’d matured, how many different experiences he’d had.”
After their meeting, Evans said he “came away feeling like I got a new concept for what The Raid 3 could be.” However, given how much time has passed since the last film, he emphasized that he would approach the project with caution, only moving forward if the idea felt truly right, adding, “So I haven’t dismissed it outright, and it might be a conversation to reopen. And it’s definitely something that if I was going to do it, I’d make sure that it was the right version of that film to make.”
Gareth‘s Havoc, which in addition to Hardy, stars Luis Guzmán, Timothy Olyphant, and Forest Whitaker, is now streaming on Netflix.
via Collider