Michael Caine is preparing to step back into the spotlight.
The 92-year-old actor, who retired from Hollywood in 2023, is making his return to the silver screen alongside his bestie Vin Diesel in a forthcoming sequel to their 2015 fantasy film, The Last Witch Hunter. While a deal with Caine has not yet been finalized, he is attached to the project and will reprise his role as the 36th Dolan.
“The Last Witch Hunter has grown since its theatrical release into a global fan favorite, with audiences continuing to discover and rewatch it across every platform over the past decade,” Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in a press release. “That enduring enthusiasm made clear there is an appetite for more stories set in this world.”
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He continued, “Vin and I have partnered many times over the years, and he is a true force in our industry. I’m thrilled to be reuniting with him as he returns to this iconic role, and excited by how advancements in filmmaking technology now allow us to economically deliver a sequel on an even more ambitious scale.”
Directed by Breck Eisner (The Expanse) and based in part on Diesel’s childhood Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, The Last Witch Hunter followed the immortal Witch Hunter Kaulder (Diesel) as he fought to stop a plague cast by the evil Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht) from destroying the world. At his side was Caine’s Dolan, the 36th priest in a long-held tradition to fight against the witch.
News of Caine coming out of his retirement for the project, which is being developed by both Lionsgate and Diesel’s One Race Films, is particularly fitting because — spoiler alert for a decade-old film — his character delayed his own retirement to fight alongside Vin Diesel’s Kaulder in the original.
Scott Garfield/Summit Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection; Moviestore/Shutterstock
Caine previously announced that he would be retiring from acting in a 2023 interview with the BBC. “I keep saying I’m going to retire,” he said at the time. “Well, I am now.”
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However, if there was anyone who could get the two-time Oscar winner back onscreen, it’s his close pal Diesel.
“Vin’s special. I love Vin,” Caine wrote of his friend in his recent memoir Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over. “We first met at a dinner party about thirty years ago. I just instinctively greeted him with a hug and announced to the whole room, ‘This is my son!’”
Caine wasn’t able to explain exactly what drew him to Diesel. “Sometimes, you sense a connection. I just liked the guy immediately, he has a big heart,” he wrote. “It turned out he was going through some tough times back then, so I think perhaps it made an impression upon him to be embraced and treated with love. Anyway, we’ve been great friends ever since.”
