A decade later, Vin Diesel has revealed our first look at the long-awaited sequel to his action fantasy passion project. The actor, who is best known for leading the Fast and Furious franchise as family man Dominic Toretto, is now all set to return as the immortal warrior out of time, Kaulder, in The Last Witch Hunter 2, with Diesel revealing our first look at his return.
Bringing together action and fantasy with Diesel at the center, 2015’s The Last Witch Hunter is directed by Breck Eisner and written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The action outing stars Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Julie Engelbrecht alongside Diesel and follows the tragic tale of Kaulder who, 800 years ago, was cursed with immortality after killing the Witch Queen. Based on an original character created by Diesel for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, The Last Witch Hunter holds a place close to the actor’s heart, and after years of teasing, a follow-up is now happening.
You can check out the first look at The Last Witch Hunter below, with Diesel taking to Instagram to reveal that he will once again be seen sporting Viking-esque hair and a beard and with the actor captioning the image: “Filmed with real wolves this week…”
Recent Streaming Success Has Resurrected ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ Franchise
The return of the long hair and beard confirms that The Last Witch Hunter 2 will take audiences back to Kaulder’s warrior past, no doubt revealing the battles he fought after being cursed with eternal life. These sequences proved to be some of the most interesting ones in the first outing, so it’s exciting to see that we will get more of Viking Vin in the sequel.
Unfortunately, while The Last Witch Hunter was a serious passion project for Diesel, the action fantasy outing was widely panned at the time. Critics were quick to take an axe to the movie, giving it a “rotten” score of 18% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The action movie was also met with a disappointing box office of $146.9 million and a score of just 44% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter.
However, Diesels’ Kaulder is at last being resurrected for The Last Witch Hunter 2…and it’s all thanks to some recent streaming success. As Adam Fogelsen, chair of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, revealed in a statement alongside the sequel announcement:
“The Last Witch Hunter has grown since its theatrical release into a global fan favorite, with audiences continuing to discover and rewatch it across every platform over the past decade. That enduring enthusiasm made clear there is an appetite for more stories set in this world. Vin and I have partnered many times over the years, and he is a true force in our industry. I’m thrilled to be reuniting with him as he returns to this iconic role, and excited by how advancements in filmmaking technology now allow us to economically deliver a sequel on an even more ambitious scale.”
- Release Date
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October 23, 2015
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Breck Eisner
- Writers
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Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Cory Goodman
- Producers
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Bernie Goldmann, Mark Canton, Vin Diesel