Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton look to reprise their roles as Hansel and Gretel in the sequel to their action horror/fairytale movie "Hansel and Gretel."
The sequel has unofficially been given the title "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters 2." Production for the movie has been pushed back several times already, according to Screen Rant. The studio that currently holds the rights to the movie is Paramount, which has cited that several setbacks have occurred, which delayed the film's projected 2016 release.
One such setback is that the original director, Tommy Wirkola, actually backed out of the movie, thus putting the film's status in question. Paramount now has put newcomer Bruno Aveillan in the director's chair.
Another major setback for the sequel is that of the schedule of lead actor Jeremy Renner. When "Hansel and Gretel" first came out, Renner only had two Marvel films under his belt as Hawkeye in "Thor" and "The Avengers." The actor now has several film series to worry about besides "The Avengers." His character of Hawkeye is set to play a major part in "Captain America: Civil War", as well as several other Marvel Phase 3 movies. Renner is also a major player in the "Mission Impossible" franchise, as he co-starred in the latest sequel "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation."
According to Movie Web, yet another franchise Renner is attached to, the "Bourne" series, is rumored to have a sequel starring his character soon. With all these setbacks with Renner's schedule, it's a mystery how the actor will fit in a movie that, by some standards, isn't as big as what he has been doing.
Moving forward, preliminary artwork for the movie has been leaked online, revealing several possible plots for the film. A picture of a high priestess of what looks to be a voodoo tribe has been shown. This could mean that our duo may be dealing with something supernatural in the film. A character simply named High Priestess has been in several versions of the script, and as of the most recent version, the character is still in the script.
The first "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" did fairly well, making almost US$200 million in box offices worldwide. Therefore, it is not a surprise that Paramount would like to make a sequel to the movie. Currently, there is no news on when production will begin, so fans of the series will just have to wait for the latest news on the sequel.