Summary
- The main reason why a sequel to The Losers never happened is because the first movie flopped at the box office, making only $29.4M worldwide compared to its $25M budget.
- Despite blaming Warner Bros. and the marketing campaign, the trailers for The Losers accurately represented the film's action and comedy. However, it faced tough competition from other blockbuster releases at the time.
- The chances of a sequel happening now are low, as the original cast, including Chris Evans and Idris Elba, have become big stars and would demand higher salaries. A potential series was planned, but there have been no recent updates on its development.
Despite big plans, fans are still left wondering why The Losers sequel never happened. Based on the DC/Vertigo comic book by Andy Diggle, Warner Bros. began developing a movie adaptation of The Losers in 2007. The film was directed by Sylvian White based on a script from Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt and followed an elite black-ops team who lose their normal lives after a mission gone wrong. This leads the team, which is led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), to try and get revenge on the man who ruined their lives while setting the stage for The Losers sequel.
Though The Losers comic book was not a well-known property, the cast was impressive featuring future MCU stars like Idris Elba, Chris Evans, and Zoe Saldaña. However, it was met with mixed reviews and box office Fans of the action-comedy expected a new franchise to kickoff following the promise of the first movie, but more than a decade later and those hopes have been largely dashed. While there are plenty of examples in Hollywood of franchises crashing and burning from the beginning, the lack of The Losers sequel is still questioned by fans years later.
The Losers Flopped At The Box Office
The main reason behind The Losers sequel never happening is clearly the poor Warner Bros. reportedly agreed to spend $25 million to make the comic book movie, which usually means it needed to make anywhere between $75-100M to turn a profit. The Losers crashed and burned at the box office, though. It only made $29.4M worldwide, with $23.6M coming from the domestic box office. It had a limited international release, as it never made it to China, Japan, and other major international markets. Since The Losers barely made more than its budget, it's no surprise that Warner Bros. wasn't eager to make another.
Star Jeffrey Dean Morgan has since come out in an interview with Fandom and blamed the movie's on Warner Bros. and the marketing campaign. But looking back at the film's marketing, The Losers' trailers heavily focused on the film's action and comedy, which is a good representation. What might have hurt The Losers even more was the competition it faced at the box office. WB's Clash of the Titans movie was the bigger blockbuster release at that time, with MCU's Phase 1 movie Iron Man 2 coming out shortly after The Losers. It also likely didn't help that the movie was repeatedly compared to A-Team, which had a reboot launch later that summer that performed well.
Now that more than a decade has passed since The Losers first released, the chances of the sequel happening are quite low. While the main cast's star power might be enough to bring in a bigger audience, it's understandable that WB still wouldn't have the confidence that a sequel wouldn't be another misfire. If anything, The Losers is more likely to be rebooted as a new movie franchise or TV series at this point.
Why The Losers 2 Now Has A Casting Problem
At this point, The Losers sequel is also unlikely to be made as one of its strongest aspects is now unattainable. Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldaña, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have become much bigger stars that would demand higher salaries to return, which would only increase the budget of The Losers 2. If a sequel were to happen, it almost definitely wouldn't have the budget to afford its original cast, meaning it would have to recast or reboot its main group of characters.
This would be yet another risk that WB Discovery is unlikely to take, and it would probably alienate audiences who enjoyed the first movie, too. For all these reasons, The Losers might never get a sequel. It's a shame that this cast won't reassemble in the same form again, but it seems like WB Discovery has enough to worry about with its Batgirl cancelation and various DCU delays.
There Were Plans For A Losers Sequel Series
While The Losers sequel never materialized, there were reportedly plans to continue the franchise in a series. Back in 2021, it was reported (via Knight Edge Media) that Amazon was developing a The Losers series with Jeffrey Dean Morgan returning. There were not many details released about the proposed series but it would be safe to assume Morgan was returning as Clay. However, two years later, no other news outlets have reported on the show as being in development.
Amazon has had success with comic book adaptations with the likes of The Boys and Invincible to name just two. It would be an ideal place to bring back the action-comedy series. However, it is surprising the show was planning on continuing off the movie with Morgan's return when a fresh reboot would be more appealing. With Morgan off in The Walking Dead universe, it seems unlikely he will be back even if The Losers show does move forward.