- - “Now You See Me 3” director reveals truth behind that shocking death and fourth movie plans

Sydney BucksbaumNovember 15, 2025 at 6:30 PM

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Katalin Vermes

Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't'

This article contains spoilers for Now You See Me: Now You Don't.

Now You See Me: Now You Don't is packed with shocking twist after shocking twist, but the biggest reveal is how the film's emotional death isn't a trick at all.

The magical heist trilogy features multiple surprise returns, but it's the shocking death of Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman), who is shot by French police working for villain Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), that packs the biggest punch, as it appears to be real, not another illusion.

"Oh my God, I'm going to get emotional," Isla Fisher, who plays escapologist Henley Reeves, tells Entertainment Weekly. "That was a really hard scene to film. I'm just an emotional person anyway, and watching Morgan Freeman, who's such an incredible actor, die in such a realistic way, even though we shot it for three days, I just couldn't stop crying. It was just so beautiful and tragic. I hope it's a magic trick and he comes back in the next one and they say that it was all a stunt."

Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate

The eight Horsemen in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't'

Despite Fisher's hope, Now You See Me: Now You Don't director Ruben Fleischer confirms to EW that Thaddeus is truly gone. But that doesn't mean the filmmaker never considered using the shooting as an opportunity for another twist.

"We thought about it, but it felt like maybe it would undermine the cause of the Horsemen," Fleischer explains. "Because we toyed with the idea, maybe at the end he's playing with his grandchildren doing a magic trick or something like that. But we chose not to, just to allow for Veronika truly to be as bad as she's perceived. Morgan felt like it was the right thing to do, so I wouldn't have done it if he felt otherwise."

Now You See Me: Now You Don't reunites all four original Horsemen — Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Fisher — along with three newcomers — Justice Smith, Ariana Greenblatt, and Dominic Sessa — for a mission they thought was given to them by Dylan (Mark Ruffalo), the leader of the secret underground organization known as the Eye, to take down the evil Vanderberg heiress. However, the Horsemen learn at the end that Charlie (Smith) had been tricking them from the beginning. It turns out, he's Veronika's presumed-dead half-brother, and was using the Horsemen to help expose her as a murderer who had been helping Nazis launder money. With Veronika out of the way, he'd stand to inherit the Vanderberg fortune.

That big third-act twist is what the director was most excited to bring to life in his first time directing a Now You See Me film.

Lionsgate

Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, and Ariana Greenblatt in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't'

"From the very onset of my involvement with this film, I felt passionately that the movie as a whole has to work as a magic trick," Fleischer says. "It's not enough just to have magic tricks throughout the film, but in the spirit of the Usual Suspects or the Sixth Sense, there's a big reveal in the third act that will really, hopefully astound audiences."

However, despite the flashy reveal of Charlie's identity, Fleischer acknowledges that Thaddeus' death earlier in the movie, which resulted from this scheme, may be difficult for some audiences to accept.

"That was a tough one, but it felt like the right thing to do in order to give the movie real stakes," the filmmaker explains. "He's so beloved, and if Veronika Vandenberg is going to take out Morgan Freeman, arguably one of the most beloved film actors of all time, then it would have a real weight to it. That scene with Woody and Rosamund, where they're in jail and he's clearly really upset and he confronts her, is one of the most powerful and certainly dramatic scenes in the movie, and it only exists because we made the decision to kill off Thaddeus, which I think is really hard for audiences."

Fleischer admits, "You don't go to a Now You See Me movie expecting there to be anyone dying. It was really challenging, but Morgan totally was on board with it and thought it was the right thing to do and brought his talent to it. I mean, I burst into tears watching him perform that because it was so emotionally evocative. He is like a grandfather to all of us in a way, and it was really powerful seeing him perform that."

While Thaddeus' death was "a solemn day on set," according to Fleischer, the rest of filming had much more positive vibes. Especially since the movie brought back Lizzy Caplan's Lula May from Now You See Me 2 (when she filled in for Fisher, who exited the film due to her real-life pregnancy). The director says uniting both Lula and Henley onscreen together was "righting the wrongs of the past" for the franchise.

Katalin Vermes

Dominic Sessa, Jesse Eisenberg, Henley Reeves, and Justice Smith in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't'

"I am so glad that we were able to feature both women because they're both incredible actors and both so funny and so talented," Fleischer says.

Lula returns as a surprise when two of the Horsemen are arrested by French police, and she stages a hilarious jailbreak in the precinct. Later, when all the Horsemen are reunited, J. Daniel Atlas (Eisenberg) is shocked to learn that Henley and Lula already know each other.

"I love that moment when Jesse's character says, 'You two knew each other?' And they're like, 'Yeah, how many female magicians do you think there are in the world? And the fact that there's three of us in the room right now is kind of blowing my mind,'" Fleischer says. "It really just kind of calls out the sort of male-dominated magic world, but also I think it gives them power and that they have a relationship independent of the Horsemen, which no one else was expecting."

Fisher reveals that the two characters having a friendship prior to this movie was actually her idea.

"I said, 'There's no way that I wouldn't know her if she's a magician and I'm a magician, and it should be that when my character Henley left, that I should have said use Lula because I can't come on the road,'" Fisher says. "And that was just so much fun. Lizzy and I had worked together on Bachelorette, and so obviously, we have a total laugh. It was quite fun."

The director also loved adding Greenblatt's new character, June, to form a female magician trio within the expanded Horsemen crew.

"Hopefully, if we're lucky enough to get to make another Now You See Me movie, we can lean into that more," Fleischer says. "It felt right to just acknowledge the fact that there's three super-strong, powerful female magicians in our movie."

The filmmaker reveals he's already hard at work on making Now You See Me 4, although it's still in the very early stages.

"We have a really, really fun adventure plan for them that we're still in the writing process on," Fleischer says. "But it will continue the theme of globetrotting magical adventures involving some heists and some performances, and continuing to tell the story of these eight great magicians."

The final scene of Now You See Me 3 shows a holographic message from Dylan — for real, this time — sent to the eight Horsemen, revealing that he was never locked up in a Russian jail after their failed mission 10 years prior. He just led the original Horsemen to believe something that wasn't true to bring them back together and to initiate the new trio of young magicians into the Eye. He also revealed a new mission for them all: "You thought your work was done? You're just getting started."

Fleischer reveals that Ruffalo's Dylan "will play a bigger role in the next adventure, pending Mark Ruffalo's schedule."

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"Unfortunately, he's a very busy guy, and they may or may not be making seven more Avengers movies, so we'll see about Mark Ruffalo's availability," he adds with a laugh. "But my hope for the movie would certainly be to have more Dylan in the film. I'm going to tell you a little secret, which is that originally he wasn't even going to be in this movie because he wasn't available at all during our principal photography."

Thanks to the film undergoing re-shoots over the summer, the director was able to add Ruffalo into the movie via hologram.

"Luckily, at that time, he was available to be shot on greenscreen independent of our shoot, but still, we managed to get him in there," Fleischer says. "Obviously, we would have preferred him to be knocking on the door and coming into the scene [at the end in person], but he is a busy man, and the hologram version of Dylan was one that I was more than happy to accept."

Now that's some real Hollywood magic.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

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