Upcoming Mystery Sequels You Didn't Know Were In The Works

Everyone loves a good mystery, from putting together the clues to trying to keep track of the double crosses. All the while you want to solve the mystery before the answer is revealed, but you're also kind of hoping you're wrong so the movie can surprise you in the end. From traditional whodunits to other genres of film that have a mystery element, there are plenty of movies out there that keep us guessing. But perhaps the biggest puzzle to solve is knowing which mystery movies are on the way, and whether they'll be worthy of adding to the existing pantheon of the best mystery movies of all time.

From mystery series that are slowly turning into ongoing franchises, to those that only have one installment under their detective gadget belt thus far, these are the movies that have officially been confirmed to be in some stage of production. They run the gamut from traditional mystery stories starring legendary sleuths, to more modern takes on the genre for those that want a little more excitement to spice up the gathering of clues and examining of evidence. 

It's also worth noting that some of these movies already have confirmed titles, and we'll use those when applicable — but otherwise, we'll simply refer to the movie as the name of the previous entry, with the next number after the title to keep things simple. 

In 2009, filmmaker Guy Ritchie brought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective to the screen in "Sherlock Holmes," with Robert Downey Jr. providing one of the best on-screen versions of Holmes, alongside Jude Law as his faithful assistant Watson. It was Ritchie's most successful movie at the box office up to that point, and a sequel seemed all but guaranteed — with "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" coming out just two years later. Even before it was released, the announcement had already been made that a third film was being written. 

Of course, that was 13 years ago at this point. It's been rough going for "Sherlock Holmes 3," with script rewrites, planned production start dates that came and went, Ritchie himself eventually bowing out, and then the COVID-19 pandemic putting the project on seemingly indefinite hiatus. However, after a few more years of silence, 2023 brought fresh news about the long-delayed project: Downey's wife and producing partner Susan Downey confirmed that the movie is still being worked on, telling TheWrap that it is "a priority for Robert." 

We still don't know exactly when we'll see the third installment — especially now that Downey is working on his big return to the MCU — but as long as Downey remains passionate about being Holmes again, we have confidence that we will. 

"Now You See Me" is an inventive heist film built around a group of stage magicians who use their skill at performative misdirection to rob banks and the like — though it's eventually revealed that they do so for a more noble purpose than initially assumed. The impressive ensemble included Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, with all but Fisher returning for sequel — perhaps owing to her nightmare on-set experience filming the original. In place of Fisher, "Now You See Me 2" added Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe into the mix for another complex and mysterious plan by the altruistic illusionists.

In 2015, a year before the release of "Now You See Me 2," it was already revealed that the series was destined to be a trilogy. Things went quiet for a bit, but encouraging updates in both 2020 and 2022 confirmed that "Now You See Me 3" remained in active development. After another two years, Eisenberg gave the most hopeful news on the project in years when he confirmed that he had read the finished script and that he expected to be on set within six months. The ensuing months saw reveals of various cast members both new and returning, with July 2024 finally bringing the official announcement to expect "Now You See Me 3" in November 2025. 

Though not a huge box office hit like the previous entries in this list, mystery crime drama "Den of Thieves" nonetheless found a big enough audience to have earned itself an upcoming sequel. The original stars Gerard Butler as a detective named "Big Nick" O'Brien who is tasked with bringing down a dangerous criminal organization comprised of former United States Marines, the main members of which are played by O'Shea Jackson Jr., Pablo Schreiber, and 50 Cent. 

Though a "Den of Thieves" sequel was seemingly fast-tracked, having been announced just a month after the movie's January 2018 release, it would take some time for the second film to come together. During the May 2023 Cannes Film Festival, distributor Briarcliff Entertainment announced it would be handling the U.S. release of "Den of Thieves: Pantera," with Butler confirmed to be returning as Big Nick sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024. Lionsgate subsequently took over the distribution rights for "Pantera," with the movie now set to debut in theaters in January 2025. Butler told Inverse of the sequel, "This one's a lot more fun." 

With the "Scream" franchise being about as active in the last few years as it's ever been, and "Final Destination" set to make its return in 2025, it was inevitable that more of its peers also come back to the big screen. Sure enough, the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" series has a fourth entry in the works, marking its first new movie installment since 2006's "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer." 

But unlike that film, which was a standalone sequel that didn't bring back any cast members from the first two movies, "I Know What You Did Last Summer 4" (working title, obviously) is set to have Freddie Prinze Jr. return to reprise his role as Ray Bronson. As of September 2024, fellow OG cast member Jennifer Love Hewitt had not yet officially joined the cast, but she was still actively in talks to do so. Little is known about the plot, other than that it will canonically connect to the first two films — which find a group of teens stalked by a killer who may or may not be the same man they struck with their car one night and thought was dead — and will not be a total reboot as previously speculated. 

It's unclear how far along the movie is, but it was still getting updates through September 2024, so it at least seems to finally be in production after many years of development hell. 

"Without Remorse," Tom Clancy's 1993 novel about a Navy SEAL trying to piece together the reasons behind various tragic events that have befallen him, was supposed to be adapted into a movie right alongside the author's other Jack Ryan-verse film adaptations of the '90s — but it wasn't to be. Another attempt at a "Without Remorse" film was undertaken in the early 2010s, but that too fell apart. The third time ultimately proved to be the charm when the project was revived in 2017, eventually nabbing Michael B. Jordan for the lead role. "Without Remorse" finally saw the light of day on Prime Video in 2021.

In fact, Jordan had signed on to appear in two connected Tom Clancy movies, with "Without Remorse" serving more as an introduction to Jordan's character and setting the stage for a film based on the better-known "Rainbow Six." Prior to this, "Rainbow Six" had been adapted into a series of video games, but hadn't yet gotten the film treatment. While the "Without Remorse" and "Rainbow Six" books actually star two different characters, the "Rainbow Six" movie has been retooled a bit to star John Kelly from "Without Remorse" rather than John Clark from the "Rainbow Six" novel. 

Confused? It wouldn't be Tom Clancy if it didn't require unraveling a twisty mystery. As to when we'll finally see it, things have been a bit quiet on the progress of "Rainbow Six" since 2023, but there's nothing to suggest it isn't still on the way. 

Though heavy on the action and thrills, 2016's "The Accountant" still has plenty of mystery to it by way of the protagonist Christian (Ben Affleck), who has to figure out why his latest client is trying to keep millions of dollars off their account ledger — and why people are being killed to protect that secret. Critics praised the performance of Affleck but were less impressed with the rest of the movie. Still, it did very well at the worldwide box office and was a moneymaker on home video, with a sequel announced the following year.

Due to hit theaters in April 2025, "The Accountant 2" brings back most of the principal cast from the original, including Affleck, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Though he won't be in the cast, Affleck's longtime pal and creative partner Matt Damon has signed on to co-produce the sequel alongside Affleck, neither of whom produced the first. In 2021, Gavin O'Connor — who directed the original and is also helming the sequel — revealed that the plan is to ultimately have an "Accountant" trilogy, though as of yet only "The Accountant 2" has been officially announced. It will likely depend on what numbers that movie does to see if a third installment gets on the books.

If you've been wondering what former "The O.C." star Mischa Barton has been up to lately, then you clearly missed out on her 2023 turn as Agatha Christie-obsessed florist-turned-amateur sleuth Miranda Green in "Invitation to a Murder." Set in 1930s England, "Invitation to a Murder" opts for classic whodunit vibes, which is somewhat refreshing for a genre that seems mostly interested in modern reinvention these days.  

True to the authors and franchises that it was clearly inspired by, it would seem that "Invitation to a Murder" isn't a one and done for Ms. Green. In fact, the franchise already has a name — the "Miranda Green Mysteries" — with two more titles in the works that are both due out in 2025. It's an ambitious undertaking to be sure, but again, we don't see enough of these types of movies anymore, so here's hoping Miranda Green gets to keep solving mysteries for years to come. Get out your magnifying glass and keep an eye out for "Murder at the Embassy" and "The Mystery of the Golden Spear" next year.

2019 was a turning point for movie adaptations of video games, as it saw the release of not just the first but the first and second video game movies to ever have positive Rotten Tomatoes scores. But since it beat "The Angry Birds Movie 2" to theaters, "Detective Pikachu" gets to claim the distinction of the first-ever critic-approved video game movie adaptation. "Detective Pikachu" also set the new domestic box office record for video game adaptations, even though it would later be bested by "Uncharted" and the first two "Sonic the Hedgehog" movies.  

Even so, with $144 million domestic and $429 million worldwide making it one of the highest-grossing video game movies of all time, "Detective Pikachu" more than had the numbers to justify a sequel. In fact, a second film was already in the works before the first movie even started breaking records. But progress was slow — so slow, in fact, that "Detective Pikachu" star Justice Smith said in 2021 that he was no longer optimistic that the follow-up was still happening. 

But 2023 brought an update that "Portlandia" co-creator Jonathan Krisel was being courted to direct the sequel, confirming that it was still an active project. That remains the last official news on "Detective Pikachu 2," but that was only last year — so there's no reason to lose hope just yet. 

Sherlock Holmes has been quite busy on both the big and small screen of late, and that doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. In addition to the upcoming Robert Downey Jr. sequel and sporadic rumblings of a fifth season of the BBC's Benedict Cumberbatch-led "Sherlock" still being a possibility someday, there is also the potential third installment to Netflix's own unique spin on the property, "Enola Holmes."

Millie Bobby Brown plays the titular Enola, the teenaged sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), who is trying to make a name for herself in the sleuthing game. Other members of the Holmes clan are involved as well, from oldest sibling Mycroft Holmes (Sam Claflin) to matriarch Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter). The movies offer a lighter, funnier, and more family-friendly angle to the classic franchise, with Cavill playing a much kinder and less cynical version of Sherlock than is typical of portrayals of the character. 2022's "Enola Holmes 2" remains the most recent installment thus far, but November 2023 brought confirmation that a script for a third film was in the works. 

In August 2024, it was reported that "Enola Holmes 3" was set to begin filming in early 2025. Given that Brown named Enola Holmes as the most important project of her career, it seems pretty likely she'll be reprising the role, though no casting details have been officially revealed as of yet.

After co-writing and directing "Doctor Strange," Scott Derrickson had already begun working on its sequel before creative differences caused him to abandon the project — which was subsequently restarted with director Sam Raimi, who eventually delivered 2022's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." Meanwhile, Derrickson and longtime collaborator C. Robert Cargill switched their efforts to horror mystery "The Black Phone," based on Joe Hill's short story of the same name.

The story of a mysterious child kidnapper known only as The Grabber in 1970s Colorado, the modestly-budgeted thriller ended up being a surprise box office hit and one of the first post-pandemic theatrical success stories. In August 2022, Derrickson began hinting at a sequel and saying that the studio was pushing for one after how well the first "Black Phone" had done. "The Black Phone 2" was eventually announced, with most of the original cast returning — including Grabber portrayer Ethan Hawke — and the film aiming for a June 2025 release. But with production company Blumhouse's 2025 slate eventually getting much more crowded, "The Black Phone 2" has since been pushed back a bit and is now set to arrive in October 2025 instead. 

Called a "stylish mommy noir" in its Rotten Tomatoes consensus on the way to a certified fresh 84%, 2018's "A Simple Favor" saw director Paul Feig continuing his streak of inventive hybrid comedies — adding mystery comedy to his filmography alongside sci-fi comedy ("Ghostbusters") and espionage comedy ("Spy"). Starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick as unlikely friends who bond over sharing sordid secrets about their pasts — secrets that, of course, will come back to cast a dark and dangerous shadow over their present — "A Simple Favor" did respectable box office numbers considering its fairly modest $20 million budget, and eventually saw a sequel announcement in 2022.

Feig, Lively, and Kendrick are all set to return for "A Simple Favor 2," with the only thing known about the story is that it is positioned as a direct sequel to the original. "A Simple Favor" was the only recent Feig film to land on critics' good sides amidst a trio of panned disappointments, which might be why "A Simple Favor 2" will be his first-ever sequel. Lively could also use some positive PR herself these days, with awkward interviews coming back to haunt her and other recent controversies that have been plaguing the actress. There's no timeline yet for the release of "A Simple Plan 2," but Feig confirmed that filming had wrapped in May 2024, so it shouldn't be a terribly long wait.

Arguably the biggest ongoing mystery film franchise right now is the "Knives Out" series, which thus far includes the 2019 original and its 2022 sequel, "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." The only real connecting thread between writer-director Rian Johnson's movies is quirky detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig — also the only actor to appear in both films so far. And Blanc is set to return once again in "Wake Up Dead Man," scheduled to hit Netflix sometime in 2025.

Like the previous two Benoit Blanc mysteries, "Wake Up Dead Man" will again feature a new cast of characters played by an entirely fresh set of actors. This time, the ensemble of suspects includes Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, and Thomas Haden Church, among others. Nothing is known about the plot, but expect a lot of twists and double- and triple-crosses as Blanc has to once again solve what the title suggests will be another murder. It seems as though Craig doesn't yet have the same franchise fatigue he very quickly began to experience while playing James Bond, telling Variety in 2022 of future "Knives Out" sequels: "If (Rian) keeps writing them, I'll keep doing them."