You’ll Be Glad There’s No Elf 2 After Seeing Will Ferrell’s New Christmas Movie!

Spirited, the new Christmas musical starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, is reminiscent of the classic holiday comedy Elf, but the new film will make Elf fans glad that a sequel was never made. Will Ferrell’s first return to a Christmas movie since Elf became an instant classic in 2003 is Apple TV+’s Spirited, a modern reimagining of the iconic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol.

However hard Ferrell, Reynolds, and the rest of the cast (including Octavia Spencer and Tracy Morgan) try, they are unable to make Spirited live up to the enormous legacy of its predecessor.

Due in great part to Will Ferrell’s portrayal of Buddy the Elf, “Elf” has become one of the most popular Christmas films of recent years. It would be an enormous challenge for a sequel to Elf to live up to the standards set by the original. Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds don’t think Spirited can live up to Elf’s reputation for excellence because they’ve assured audiences that the film isn’t making an effort to replicate it? Fortunately, the new spin on A Christmas Carol in Spirited is better suited to Will Ferrell’s talents than an Elf sequel ever could have been.

How Spirited Compares to Elf

While in Elf, Will Ferrell plays the role of an enormous man-child, in Spirited, he plays a much more restrained role. In his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present, a sage figure who has been making people’s lives better for many years at Christmas, Ferrell still has plenty of comedic material to play with. Particularly when contrasted with Ryan Reynolds’s updated version of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Will Ferrell's New Christmas Movie Will Make You Glad There's No Elf 2

Spirited’s humor is more in keeping with the wittier ironic humor that has become Ryan Reynolds’ signature style than the naivety and goofiness that made Elf such a cherished and quotable classic. This seems like a good fit, especially considering the actor’s age, and proves why Will Ferrell was correct to turn down Elf 2.

Why Elf 2 Never Happened

Fans of the first Elf may have assumed that a sequel would have been produced by now, given the film’s commercial success. The sequel Elf was supposed to be made, but Will Ferrell decided not to reprise his role in it because he didn’t want to be associated with a poor film. The legendary performer has often referred to the prospect of his return as Buddy the Elf as “pathetic.

Will Ferrell told Andy Cohen of Watch What Happens Live that he “I think it would look slightly pathetic if I tried to squeeze back in the elf tights: Buddy the middle-aged elf” when asked about the possibility of reprising his iconic Christmas movie character. In Spirited, he made the right choice when he ditched his elf tights for a suit

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Will Ferrell’s return to Christmas humor in Spirited is an appropriate choice for the actor at this point in his career, even though the film is unlikely to become the holiday classic that Elf has. Unlike in previous Ryan Reynolds films, Spirited features an older Will Ferrell playing the role of a mentor to the younger star.

Thankfully, this decision allows Ferrell to maintain his dignity and spares him the pain of hurting those who have grown attached to his younger Buddy the Elf. Viewers should be relieved that Ferrell exercised self-control and there was never an Elf 2.

Why Will Ferrell Rejected a $29 Million Offer

Here, Will Ferrell explains why he didn’t want to return as Buddy the Elf in the sequel to the 2003 holiday smash movie Elf. In a new interview, Ferrell admits that the recycled premise of Elf 2: Buddy Saves Christmas would have landed on Santa’s bad list, even though he would have received $29 million for returning to the yellow tights of Buddy the Elf. In the first film, the human raised by elves rescued Christmas by helping Santa with the help of his long-lost father Walter (James Caan) and dissatisfied Gimble’s worker Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) (Ed Asner).

The Elf 2 script, however, was not at all enchanted.

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“To advertise the film honestly, I would have had to say things like, “Oh no, it’s not good.” I simply could not refuse such a generous offer of financial support “Ferrell revealed as much to THR. “And I wondered, ‘Can I utter that?’ No, I don’t think I can, and that rules out participating in the film.”

Will Ferrell's New Christmas Movie Will Make You Glad There's No Elf 2

In 2013, 10 years after Elf made Ferrell a movie star and made him famous on Saturday Night Live and Old School, he said he would “absolutely not” play Buddy in an Elf 2 movie.

He told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, “I just think it would look a little sad if I tried to squeeze back into the elf tights.” “Buddy the middle-aged elf.”

Caan, who was willing to come back for Elf 2, says that there won’t be a second movie because Ferrell and director Jon Favreau couldn’t work together again.

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“We were going to do it, and I thought, “Oh my God, I finally have a movie that is part of a series!” I can make money, so I’ll just let my kids do whatever they want.’ Will and the director did not get along very well “He told Cleveland’s 92.3 The Fan in 2020. “Will wanted to do it, but he didn’t want the director. He had agreed to it in writing. It was something like that.”

Favreau says that New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. executives have been trying to get him to make Elf 2 over and over again. The budget for the first movie was said to be $33 million, but it made $233 million around the world.

“At first, there was talk of a sequel, but it never happened, which is probably for the best since it now stands on its own. But it comes up, “At the time, Favreau said. “I hear from the studio, and they give me their different ideas. Part of me wonders if there’s anything to do after Elf, but I don’t think a straight sequel would be the best idea.”

Favreau said that a second movie would be “a big gamble. I’d be happy with how [Elf] is even if I didn’t do anything. When you try to add to something, you always run the risk of making it less good than it was before.”

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