Variety notes that there’s been no reason given for Ritchie leaving the film, which he was announced to be directing back in April. It’s certainly possible he’s just crazy busy: Although he’s stepped back a bit from film directing in recent years (give or take an Apple TV+ project like Fountain Of Youth) Ritchie’s fresh off directing episodes of MobLand, and is working on both his Young Sherlock TV show and the television adaptation of The Gentlemen. (There’s also a Benedict Cumberbatch/Rosamund Pike dark comedy somewhere in the mix.) But with the sequel set to begin production in September, it still raises questions about who will be able to tackle this latest chapter in the life of Gyllenhaal’s UFC-fighter-turned-small-town-bouncer, Elwood Dalton.
Gyllenhaal’s Road House reportedly did extremely well for Amazon, topping the company’s streaming charts when it was dropped on Prime in March of 2024—hence, presumably, why the studio was willing to shell out for another one, and was even courting folks like Dave Bautista (to say nothing of Ritchie himself) to bulk out its cast and crew. But Liman was also vocally angry about feeling like he’d been hoodwinked, ending up with a “directed a streaming movie” paycheck instead of what he would have gotten from a theatrical release. (Amazon has said it clearly told the director he could either have theaters, or a bigger budget for the movie, and opted for the latter.)
In addition to Gyllenhaal, the 2024 Road House starred Daniela Melchior, Jessica Williams, and Conor McGregor as the very large man who most dearly wanted to beat Gyllenhaal’s character up; the film ended with a mid-credits scene revealing McGregor’s character survived, so, really, this thing pretty much writes and directs itself.
