‘Now You See Me 3’ production, plot: Movie still in early production per latest update; Lionel Shrike returns?

Fresh reports on “Now You See Me 3” may have been scarce for a couple of years now, but the latest update suggests the movie is still in the pipeline. Avid fans of the movie series have also been looking forward to seeing if a long-running plot speculation involving Lionel Shrike, Dylan Rhodes/Shrike’s (Mark Ruffalo) father, would pan out.

‘Now You See Me 3’ release date, production updates suggest the movie is not canceled yet

Talks about the production of “Now You See Me 3” started as early as 2015 and was ignited by no less than Lionsgate, the studio that mainly produces the film series. A year later, a few months following the second movie’s premiere, another update came out, suggesting that a trilogy is in the works.

In early 2015, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed that they had started the “early planning” for “Now You See Me 3.” But, not surprisingly, other details such as a release date window was not provided at the time.

Some believe that the second movie’s slightly underwhelming box office success from its June 2016 premiere would mean that a third movie will be shelved. However, in November of the same year, Deadline reported that Lionsgate has enlisted writers Neil Weidener and Gavin James for the script of “Now You See Me 3.” This suggests that the series would, at least, extend to three installments.

‘Now You See Me 3’ plot predictions: Is Lionel Shrike still alive?

Even the avid fans of the movie series are divided at the major plot twist revealed at the end of the second movie. Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), the Four Horsemen and Dylan’s arch-rival, turned out to be a member of The Eye and was the partner of Lionel. This opens the possibility that many more secrets could be written into the series plot to surprise the audience in “Now You See Me 3.”

However, the widely shared plot prediction is that the third movie could revolve around the return of the not-dead Lionel. There are very intricate fan theories explaining how this could be a storyline for “Now You See Me 3.” But one possible foreshadowing from the first two films is the repetitive reminder that no one found Lionel’s corpse was never found.