Sam Raimi may have felt the draw to OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, but he does not seem to feel the same towards making a sequel. Despite a surprising open weekend gross of $150 million worldwide and the announcement that Disney is already fast-tracking the follow-up, Sam Raimi is not on board to direct it. In fact, it almost seems that Raimi never intended to stick around for a second OZ, no matter what the box office ended up being.
In London doing promotion for the movie, Raimi had this to say: (Warning: the following quote does have a spoiler for those of you who have not seen the movie or read the L. Frank Baum books)
I did leave some loose ends for another director if they want to make the picture. I tried to make it a complete ending, so that the audience would be fulfilled, but I also let Evanora and Theodora get away. I was attracted to this story but I don’t think the second one would have the thing I would need to get me interested.
Obviously the Oz series of books has tons of material that can be mined for big screen adaptations so it should come as no surprise that the movie is left open ended. It wouldn’t make much sense to put any finality to a movie that already has a second chapter made over 70 years ago. Disney could go the route of remaking THE WIZARD OF OZ next, or they could mine the adventures that occur in the time frame between the arrival of Oz to the arrival of Dorothy.
Raimi has had numerous movies in the pipeline that have all fizzled. After his debacle on SPIDER-MAN 3, Raimi proved he could handle low budget (DRAG ME TO HELL) and big budget (OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL) and now his skills as director will be in much higher demand. The sky is now the limit for him and that is good news for us movie fans.