Gerard Butler's Has Fallen Franchise: Was It Quietly Cancelled?

It’s nearly seven years since the last entry, and I’m starting to think Gerard Butler’s Has Fallen franchise has quietly ended. While he has popped up in just about every genre imaginable, Gerard Butler’s action movie run has yielded some of his biggest hits.

From Law Abiding Citizen to Plane, Butler is the present-day king of B-movie actioners made for the big screen. He has a few franchises under his belt too, with the Has Fallen movie series being his most popular. This sees Butler’s Secret Service agent having to save the President (and often, the world) on multiple occasions.

Following on from 2019’s third entry Angel Has Fallen, a fourth movie titled Night Has Fallen was announced. There has been radio silence on that entry ever since, and as time goes by, I feel the odds of Butler returning to it are remote.

It Sounds Like Gerard Butler Isn’t Returning For A Fourth Has Fallen Movie

Butler has been quite busy in recent years, fronting back-to-back projects such as Kandahar and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. He’s even fostered a new franchise with frequent collaborator Ric Roman Waugh, with the two recently reuniting for a fourth time on Greenland 2: Migration.

Waugh also directed Angel Has Fallen and was set to helm Night Has Fallen too. However, in a recent interview with Polygon, Waugh revealed that while he and Butler are open to another, work on a fourth adventure has stalled out.

We would be up for it, but — and I know I speak for Jerry as well — we’re not interested in just doing another sequel. We’d really have to figure out what would make it fly as a new version, that it would evolve the Mike Banning character and so forth. I mean, I don’t know, maybe we do the Lethal Weapon version. We have 87-year-old Morgan Freeman go toe-to-toe with Mike Banning. That’d be fun, but no, nothing’s in the works right now. That would be something that would have to be cracked.

It sounds like Night Has Fallen has been quietly canceled, and that Butler and Waugh have moved on. One possible reason for the sequel’s delay involved Butler launching a lawsuit against Millennium Films over unpaid profits from Olympus Has Fallen, with that case later being settled in 2023.

The Has Fallen Franchise Has Moved To TV

The poster for Paris Has Fallen featuring Vincent (Tewfik Jallab) pointing a gun and Zara (Ritu Arya) against the Arc de Triomphe.

Despite the Olympus Has Fallen lawsuit being taken care of, there has been little sign of movement on the next movie. Instead, Millennium brought the property to TV with the well-received Paris Has Fallen. This focused on two new heroes battling against a vicious terrorist in the French capital.

Paris Has Fallen had two great leads, Tewfik Jallab and Ritu Arya, and plenty of action to satisfy fans of its big-screen counterpart. Jallab and Arya will return for another season titled Apollo Has Fallen, whose airdate has yet to be confirmed.

In short, the Has Fallen saga is still alive and well, though Butler is notable by his absence from the TV series. He’s attached to the show in a producing capacity, though a rumored appearance by Butler’s Banning didn’t come to pass in the first season.

Gerard Butler Has Many Other Franchises To Focus On

Gerard Butler's Stoick the Vast roars in How To Train Your Dragon 2025 — Gerard Butler’s Stoick the Vast roars in How To Train Your Dragon 2025.

In addition to being a busy bee with upcoming movies like Empire City (which is being described as “Die Hard in the Empire State Building“) Butler has other franchises besides the Has Fallen series.

While the second Den of Thieves wasn’t a huge moneyspinner, a third film is currently in development. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon was a huge hit in 2025, and Butler is expected to reprise his role as Stoick the Vast in a sequel, set to arrive in 2027.

Gerard Butler previously voiced Stoick the Vast in the How to Train Your Dragon animated movies.

Assuming Greenland 2: Migration is a success, there’s a chance Waugh and Butler could reunite for another sequel. There’s even talk of a Plane spinoff (amusingly titled Ship) being on the way, though it sounds like it will focus on Mike Colter’s character and that Butler won’t be returning.

Angel Has Fallen Would Be A Great Ending, But I Want More

Butler has a full plate with other franchises and original projects, and nothing is currently happening with Night Has Fallen. There’s every chance that Butler is happy to stop the Has Fallen franchise with the third movie, which received the best reviews and closed Mike’s story.

He was reunited with his estranged father and was stepping back from being a Secret Service agent to focus on family. Angel Has Fallen’s ending was a nice, full-circle moment for Banning, and could serve as a neat trilogy capper. Selfishly, however, I still want more.

Fun as Paris Has Fallen was, it still missed Butler’s charisma. The Has Fallen series was one of the few reliable, mid-budget action franchises around, and they suit Butler’s talents perfectly. Surely there’s one more story to tell where a retired Banning is forced back to save the world again?

Or, the next Has Fallen could take advantage of the gap between entries and make Mike Banning himself the President. That might be a leap too far if Butler wants to keep the series somewhat grounded, but if the franchise really has quietly fallen, I’d be sad not to see Banning one final time.

Source: Polygon