Is Safe House 2 With Denzel Washington Happening Or Has That Door Closed For Good?

In 2012, Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington teamed up for a commercially successful action/thriller in the form of "Safe House." While the film was met with mixed reviews from critics in its day, it was a sizable financial hit, taking in $208 million at the global box office, including more than $126 million domestically. The film has also remained a staple on cable TV and streaming in the years since its release. Perhaps not surprisingly, Universal Pictures was, at one point, developing a sequel.

The follow-up was originally announced in late 2012 shortly after the film's successful theatrical run. At the time, it was reported that writer David Guggenheim would return to pen the screenplay. Now, here we are more than a decade later and next to nothing has been said officially regarding "Safe House 2." So, is the movie still happening? Would Washington or Reynolds return? We're here to break down everything we know. Let's get into it.

For those who may need a refresher, "Safe House" centers on Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), one of the CIA's most dangerous traitors, who resurfaces in South Africa after eluding capture for almost a decade. During his interrogation, the safe house he's being held in is attacked by mercenaries forcing rookie agent, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) to take Frost on the run. Spoilers, but Frost doesn't make it and dies toward the end of the film.

That is one of the complicating factors in getting the sequel going, as Washington's character couldn't live on for a proper sequel. So, it would either have to be Reynolds as Weston teaming up with another actor for another adventure, or a prequel of some kind. So, financially speaking, Universal may have had the motivation to make a follow-up but, creatively, crafting a story that made sense may have been challenging.

The other thing to consider is that every key player became very busy. Reynolds quickly ascended Hollywood's A-list and remains one of the most in-demand actors working today. Similarly, Washington has rarely had a long break in his career and the last decade has been no exception. Writer David Guggenheim has also stayed busy. He was, at one point, set to write a version of "Bad Boys 3" in the aftermath of this movie's success. Guggenheim also penned the Netflix hit "The Christmas Chronicles," and he was the creator of the hit series "Designated Survivor." He may not have had a ton of time to focus on "Safe House 2," particularly as everyone else's availability seemed uncertain.

Not much has been said by seemingly anyone involved since the sequel was first announced back in 2012. Washington did, however, briefly address the topic a handful of years ago while promoting "The Equalizer 2," which was actually the first sequel in his storied career. "I don't know what happened to that," Washington said when asked about "Safe House 2" by Yahoo! in 2018. At the time though, it was said that the plan was to make a prequel, which seemingly would have been the best way to get Washington on board.

If the plan was to do a prequel, it would have been harder to get Reynolds involved, which again gets back to the idea that cracking this story was probably tricky. It also probably wouldn't have been easy to get Washington to agree to do the film, as he was never big on the idea of making sequels for the sake of it. In that same interview, the Oscar-winning actor discussed, broadly, his feelings about making sequels.

"It's got to lend itself to that to begin with. I haven't taken a job where I went, 'Oh, this could be five movies.' I haven't looked at it that way."

So it seems like selling Washington on a sequel/prequel might be tough anyhow. Aside from that, practically speaking, the actor is now more than a decade older than he was when the first film came out. A prequel gets less likely by the day. Granted, Tobin Bell came back for "Saw X" recently, which was a prequel that took place nearly 20 years back in that franchise's timeline, so it's not impossible. But if this movie ever becomes a franchise, there are more likely paths forward at this point.

The more time that passes, the more likely it seems that "Safe House 2," as originally conceived, is not going to happen. That said, the original film still has a sizable audience and it was recently dominating the charts on Netflix. That being the case, Universal may still see value in doing something with the franchise, though more likely something that would be geared toward the direct-to-video or direct-to-streaming market rather than a big theatrical release.

We've seen several franchises return seemingly based largely on streaming demand. "R.I.P.D." was a giant bomb, but it still got a low-budget sequel last year. There's also the upcoming sequel to Taylor Sheridan's thriller "Wind River" as another example. In both cases, the original cast members did not return but the name recognition still carried enough weight to make the movies worth the investment. A smaller-budget version of "Safe House 2," or maybe even a remake, seems like something with a much better shot at happening at this point. 

Whether or not that does happen is another question entirely, but it seems as though the window for a sequel with either Washington or Reynolds returning has firmly closed.