Red Notice 2 is likely to become a reality given the first movie's success, however, any sequel to Red Notice needs to find a way of breaking from Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds' established movie star formulas, in order to avoid repeating the same shtick over again. With over 364 million watch hours, Red Notice has become a massive success for Netflix, becoming the most-watched movie on the streaming service within 28 days of its release, and beating the previous record-holder Bird Box. Notwithstanding this, it received largely mixed to negative reviews, with critics citing its clichés and cookie-cutter familiarity among its failings; something that a sequel needs to address.
Starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, the appeal of Red Notice resides largely in seeing three of Hollywood's brightest stars together on screen. Netflix spent over $200 million on Red Notice, making it their most expensive movie ever made, with a large part of the budget spent on the cast's salaries. Red Notice 2 has already been hinted at by the producers, with Johnson, Reynolds, and Gadot likely to reprise their roles in another big-budget action-packed heist extravaganza.
Over the last 20 years, Dwayne Johnson has steadily secured himself as one of the most successful action stars of all time and has balanced this with family fare such as Moana and Jungle Cruise. His charming and charismatic energy has translated to box office success again and again, but he's admitted that there are only certain types of roles he pursues (the highly-skilled badass that's also sensitive and vulnerable). Equally, Ryan Reynolds is a natural comedian, and 2016's Deadpool was a turning point for the actor. The Merc With A Mouth's trademark quips gelled perfectly with Reynold's comedic sensibilities, and Ryan Reynold’s movies have largely copied this formula ever since. Red Notice though over-relied on Johnson's charm and Reynold's jokes, to the extent where there is little else that the film has to offer. Audiences easily tire of the same thing again and again, and repeating Dwayne Johnston's and Ryan Reynolds' same formula once more for Red Notice 2 would creatively be a mistake.
The novelty value of seeing Johnson and Reynolds together has been sated by the first film, so Red Notice 2 has its work cut out to bring something new to the table. Both actors have leaned into their established formulas so much that they've both become pigeonholed as a result. If Red Notice 2 repeats Red Notice’s failings and has nothing original to offer in terms of plot, action, or characters then the sequel could be in real trouble. Changing up and improving the movie stars' established formulas though would help to make Red Notice 2 more memorable and different from the first movie, and fix some of the original movie’s shortcomings.
Notwithstanding this, one thing studios don’t like to do is mess with a tried and tested formula, and given the success of the first film, Red Notice 2 has the potential to just be more of the same. Good sequels though are usually the ones that are brave enough to give audiences something new, rather than just re-hash the original. Additionally, both Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds are capable actors with a greater range than either of them have utilized in recent movies. Hopefully, Red Notice 2 won't fall into the easy trap many sequels do and surprise everyone.