Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh is contemplating another sequel, says Don Cheadle. The heist franchise — rebooting the 1960 film starring Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin — was a box office success, earning more than a billion dollars between Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen. In addition, the series received an all-female spin-off, Ocean’s 8, which was not directed by Soderbergh and had been regarded by critics as a weaker installment against its predecessors.
The Ocean’s franchise has been recognized as “the movie star movies,” with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, and Don Cheadle being just a few members of the original gang. In Twelve, Julia Roberts plays a character playing Julia Roberts, just one bit within the sequel’s trailblazing venture in making a parody of Ocean’s Eleven, which in itself was a light parody of older heist movies. Unfortunately, since Thirteen was released, two members of the central gang, Bernie Mac and Carl Reiner, have passed away. As an “Ocean’s Fourteen” has long been hoped for, the likelihood of that happening had been considered impossible until now.
Steven Soderbergh has thought of creating another Ocean’s film, Don Cheadle claimed during an interview with EW. The pair worked together on Soderbergh’s latest heist film, No Sudden Move, which will release in July on HBO Max when they tossed the idea around. According to Cheadle, the sequel was being seriously discussed until Mac’s passing, which shelved the project indefinitely. Now, Soderbergh says he may have thought of a way to do it but is still only “thinking about it” at the moment. Cheadle claims not to know any plot details but imagines “the main group” would be in it.
Given that after Ocean’s 8, Clooney’s titular character Danny Ocean is dead, many assume that the all-female spin-off was a means of putting a neat button on the entire franchise. Others have also theorized Danny Ocean is still alive and that the conman had to fake his death. Thus, for Soderbergh to create another sequel would require either some retconning of 8 or a continuation of the Ocean’s heists without Ocean himself — perhaps instead replaced by Sandra Bullock, who plays his sister.
As Ocean’s Eleven reinvented the heist movie, Ocean’s Twelve took that reinvention to a zenith, Ocean’s Thirteen wrapped up the story for the gang, and Ocean’s 8 gave Danny Ocean a requiem, another sequel would need to have a focused thesis to satisfy fans. In addition, to assemble the team for another heist would also have to be a labor of love for the cast themselves, given the Ocean’s actors took pay cuts to make the films. All in all, Soderbergh is aware that while an “Ocean’s Fourteen” would likely be welcomed by moviegoers, any existing script ideas would need to account for characters that have passed away, actors that have passed away, and be a worthy addition to a celebrated collection.
