And now, for their next trick: a sequel!

Now You See Me didn’t go over great with critics (although I was a mild fan), but the movie made audiences’ money disappear faster than the Statue of Liberty when David Copperfield’s around. The film made $117 million in the United States and another $234 million overseas; both impressive numbers for a franchise about a bunch of criminally minded magicians that wasn’t based on any kind of existing source material. Now you will see a sequel, which is unfortunately not called Now You Still See Me or Now You See Me Again or even Now 2 See Me. Instead it’s just plain old Now You See Me 2. (Curiously, the project was originally announced as Now You See Me: The Second Act, but the subtitle’s apparently been dropped.)

The strength of the first movie was its great cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, and Michael Caine. From that bunch, only Fisher disappeared in the interim (she was pregnant at the time of shooting and thus unavailable); she’s been replaced in the “Four Horsemen” of magicians by Lizzy Caplan. The other big addition is former wizard Daniel Radcliffe. In the trailer he looks like a total Muggle, which is a cute joke.

Here’s the plot summary:

The Four Horsemen [Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan] return for a second mind-bending adventure, elevating the limits of stage illusion to new heights and taking them around the globe. One year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public’s adulation with their Robin Hood-style magic spectacles, the illusionists resurface for a comeback performance in hopes of exposing the unethical practices of a tech magnate. The man behind their vanishing act is none other than Walter Mabry [Daniel Radcliffe], a tech prodigy who threatens the Horsemen into pulling off their most impossible heist yet. Their only hope is to perform one last unprecedented stunt to clear their names and reveal the mastermind behind it all.

Magic is never all that interesting in movies (because movies are magic tricks themselves, and they make it awfully easy to fake illusions), but there was enough chemistry between the actors and enough liveliness to the story to make the first Now You See Me a reasonable success. Am I dying to see another one? No. Would I watch another one if it showed up on basic cable on 2PM on a Saturday afternoon? Yes. Before that happens, though, Now You See Me 2 must first open in theaters. That takes place on June 10, 2016.

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