Den of Thieves sequel in the works with Gerard Butler returning

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If you found yourself enjoying DEN OF THIEVES, which was released to theaters just last month, then you'll likely be pleased to know that the gang is set to return for a sequel. Although the film didn't exactly thrill critics, it did perform far better than expected at the box-office, which has naturally led to the announcement of a sequel.

Deadline reports that Gerard Butler and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson are both set to return, as is director Christian Gudegast, who will also be penning the DEN OF THIEVES sequel from an original idea. It's also expected that O'Shea Jackson Jr. will be back as well as the actor is currently in negotiations with the studio. The sequel will reportedly find "Big Nick (Butler) on the hunt in the streets of Europe 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." Our own Chris Bumbray didn't exactly love DEN OF THIEVES, which he accused of being "as close to a rip-off of Michael Mann’s [HEAT] as you can get without being sued." Bumbray also took aim at the overly long run-time and unlikeable characters, which unfortunately includes Gerard Butler.

Butler can be a fun action hero, but he’s not a compelling lead for a crime saga, with him embodying a toxic kind of macho vibe that, I suspect, Gudegast and Butler wants us to think is cool, but makes him the single most unlikable lead character the star has ever played. One has to wonder what Butler was thinking, because his action fans will hate how light on actual action this is, while the female audience that sees him as a sex symbol will be gobsmacked by the atrocious misogyny on display, with virtually every female character other than his on-screen wife (who’s presented as an unfaithful ball-breaker) being a stripper, prostitute or both.

The official synopsis for DEN OF THIEVES:

A Los Angeles crime saga in the vein of “Heat”, DEN OF THIEVES follows the intersecting and often personally connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles.

You can check out the full review of DEN OF THIEVES from our Chris Bumbray right here.