It seems that you can’t keep the MacManus Brothers down. While it’s been more than a decade since the sequel to The Boondock Saints was released, which in turn came out a decade after the original cult classic, it looks like we’re due for a trilogy. Franchise director Troy Duffy has confirmed that The Boondock Saints III is happening, and both Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery will be back for it.
It’s been a long and a rough road for the Boondock Saints as a franchise. An attempt to reboot the series for television five years ago never actually materialized. And there had been a very public split between the two lead actors and the franchise for reasons that have never been made entirely clear, which killed earlier plans for a third movie. But it seems that everything has now been repaired. As Troy Duffy tells Deadline, a new movie is on the way that will take the story forward from where it ended in Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. According to Duffy...
The fans have loved these characters for 20 years. They use terms of endearment like ‘the Brothers’ or ‘the Boys.’ We left them in jail at the end of Boondock 2 and fans want to know what happened to them. Norman and Sean have been a driving force to keep this franchise on track and break some new ground story-wise. The fans have been waiting. They literally ask about it daily, and I am really excited to be working with Impossible Dream to make Boondock III a reality.
The new script for Boondock Saints III was actually co-written by Sean Patrick Flanery with input from Norman Reedus and Troy Duffy among others. The movie hopes to film next year when Reedus has a break from his Walking Dead commitments and Flanery is not filming The Boys. It’s unclear if this version of a third film is related to the earlier attempt to make the movie or an entirely new story.
The original Boondock Saints was the definition of a cult classic. It had the unlucky fate to debut just after the high school massacre at Columbine, which resulted in the movie barely getting released at all. Fans, however, found the movie on DVD, and it became a huge hit. The desire for a sequel led to All Saints Day being released in 2009.
The first film followed the MacManus Brothers Connor and Murphy, who killed a pair of Russian mobsters in self defense, but were branded as heroes in the media for doing so. The two then decide they’ve been chosen to become vigilantes and rid their Boston home of crime.
At this point it seems only Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery are set to appear. It’s stated in the report that there are hopes to bring Willem Dafoe back in his recurring role as Smecker, but thus far he is not attached to the project. One wonders if Billy Connolly will also return as the patriarch of the MacManus family.
Boondock Saints fans will certainly be excited to hear that a third movie is on the way. After all this time the film could only be a couple of years away from being a reality.
