Will Ferrell and Jon Favreau Beef Killed All Chances of ‘Elf’ Sequel

The holidays are right around the corner, and that means at least at one point in the next couple of months Will Ferrell fully dressed as an elf is going featured in the TV movie of the night for a couple of channels. Some folks are going to want to take that walk down memory lane and stream Elf on Netflix as well. What if we told you that there was going to be a sequel for the movie? In fact, that sequel was basically greenlit. At the end of the day though it was the “Anchorman” star who backed out. Ferrell says he didn’t believe in the movie, but the issue may have been personal!

Why Ferrell Is Saying That He Backed Out of Elf 2

Will Ferrell recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and got asked about the potential sequel to Elf. Will was more or less honest about the reason why he ultimately backed out of the film. Saying that he just didn’t believe that the sequel was any good. The Hollywood Reporter estimates that Will would’ve been paid around 29 million dollars to reprise his role. Ferrell admitted that the pay day for the sequel would’ve been a good one. He felt though that he could not in good conscience go out and promote a movie he knew was bad. He said on the matter,

“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money,'”

Maybe It Wasn’t The Movie That Was Bad The Issue Was Ferrell Didn’t Want Favreau Directing

Although Will Ferrell did not throw Jon Favreau under the bus and blame him for the fact that the movie didn’t get made, James Caan did! He had already come forward and revealed that the real reason why the sequel never happened was an actual beef between Jon Favreu and Will Ferrell. Caan who played Ferrell’s father in the 2003 classic revealed back in 2020 that he was extremely disappointed when the movie didn’t come to fruition. As he was hoping that it could turn into a massively grossing movie franchise. He also disclosed the problems between Ferrell and Favreau saying to The Fan in Cleveland,

“The director and Will didn’t get along very well,” Caan then elaborated. “Will wanted to do it, and he didn’t want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things.”

How Much Money Could An Elf Sequel Have Generated?

The beef between Ferrell and Jon Favreau, now better known for playing “Happy” in the MCU, potentially lost a lot of people a ton of cash. Back in 2003 Elf made around $223.3 million just at the box office. All of this on just a 33 million dollar budget. The studio potentially continues to collect money from the film with streaming deals, and TV re-runs. Of course there is no guarantee that a sequel would ever be able to match the type of numbers that the original did. The overall feeling though is that there was certainly still money to be made. Ferrell though has shut down the potential for a sequel at this point. Calling it ridiculous to try and get back into those iconic green tights!