The original cast of the Now You See Me movie series did not have high hopes for its success.
Dave Franco, who plays Jack Wilder in the franchise alongside other core cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fischer, and Lizzy Caplan, revealed on Hot Ones that he thought the 2013 film would tank.
“I can talk about this because we’ve done 3 of them,” he said when asked if there was a film that he thought would be a disaster. “The Now You See Me series.”
The film follows a team of illusionists known as “The Four Horsemen,” who use their skills to pull off Robin Hood-style bank heists.
Franco recalled, “Day one, this is magicians pulling off bank heists, right? I remember at the end of the first day, it was such chaos trying to figure it out, that we all went out to dinner and we literally cheers’ed to the end of our careers. We thought this movie was going to take us down.”
Instead, Franco—also known for his roles in 21 Jump Street, Neighbors, and the Academy Award-nominated film The Disaster Artist, which his brother James Franco directed—found his biggest commercial success with the series, which has grossed $932.2 million worldwide.
“Cut to 15 years later, we’ve done three of these things,” he said. A fourth film is in active development. He also starred in the body horror film Together, alongside his wife, actress Alison Brie, which was released last year. Next up is the Sundance hit Idiots, which was previously titled The S--theads. “I’ve learned over the years to never have expectations,” Franco said on Monday.
“I know how hard it is to have a movie that hits,” he said, “and so when a movie does hit, it’s a nice surprise.”
