Warren Beatty's 1990 blockbuster film Dick Tracy remains one of the weirdest and most unique comic book films ever made, but will it ever get a sequel? Despite being a modest hit, it failed to launch a franchise centered around the comic strip detective, and complicated issues with the film rights have kept the character from ever being rebooted onscreen. Still, Beatty continues threatening to make a sequel to this day.
Back in the 1980s, there was a serious effort to adapt the Dick Tracy comic strip into a feature film. The strip focused on the simple adventures of Tracy as he took down various gangsters, and Hollywood struggled to translate the simple setup into a two-hour narrative. It cycled through multiple directors, writers, and studios while the project languished in development hell until Disney got into the comic book movie game and hired Warren Beatty, one of the biggest stars of the 60s and 70s, to star in and eventually direct the film. Disney wanted it to be their own version of Tim Burton's Batman and heavily pushed the marketing and merchandising for the film.
Why Dick Tracy 2 Hasn't Happened Yet
The response to the first Dick Tracy movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. It was a modest commercial and critical success but was nowhere near the level of Batman, and there wasn't much interest or excitement for a hypothetical follow-up. Even if a direct sequel was never greenlit, it could be expected that in the thirty years since the movie came out that the Hollywood nostalgia cycle might have gotten the brand rebooted by now. This hasn't happened because the rights to the character are actually owned by Beatty himself. Beatty purchased the film rights for the character of Dick Tracy and, through complicated legal means, has managed to hold onto them to this day. This means that no new adaptation of the comic strip can happen without his approval, and he still wants to make a sequel to the 1990 film.
Dick Tracy 2 Plans Revealed
It seems like every few years someone asks Beatty if Dick Tracy 2 will ever happen, and he always says that it will. This might simply be a way for him to hold onto the film rights, though. Like with certain brands such as the Fantastic Four, Beatty keeping the film rights to Dick Tracy were dependent on a sequel being eventually made. In 2010 he even directed and starred in the very strange Dick Tracy Special for television, in which Beatty in character as Tracy is interviewed by Leonard Maltin to talk about his life and crime-fighting career. A judge ruled that this special was enough to allow Beatty to keep the Dick Tracy film rights for another few years. As recently as 2016, Beatty has said that he still plans to make Dick Tracy 2.
Dick Tracy 2 Cast & Story Details
The only guaranteed returning cast member would be Beatty himself. Most of the villains were killed off at the end of the first film, so it limits how much of his rogue's gallery could appear in a follow-up. Beatty has never given any concrete details about the story. If there ever is a sequel the story will likely just be Dick Tracy trying to take down a new group of gangsters, except now Warren Beatty is in his 80s.
Dick Tracy 2 Release Date
There is no set release date for a Dick Tracy 2, and there likely never will be. Whenever Beatty loses control of the film rights for the character, and it can be expected that a studio will snatch them up and attempt to make a Dick Tracy reboot in some form or another.
Even if Dick Tracy 2 never happens, the original Dick Tracy remains one of the most creative and unique comic book movies ever, and it would have been exciting to see how Beatty would have followed it up.