Robert Downey Jr.’s first step into his post-Marvel Cinematic Universe career saw him stumble pretty spectacularly, with Dolittle almost instantly being named as a surefire contender for the unwanted title of 2020’s worst movie, despite only being released in the third week of January.
It wound up losing over $100 million for Universal, but due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, it was still the seventh highest-grossing title of the year. Extensive rewrites and reshoots pushed the budget up towards a mammoth $175 million, with countless script doctors brought in to try and salvage the project. Seth Rogen was one of those asked to try and right the ship, but he admitted that he felt he’d become part of a scam, which is a fair assessment when the extra filming saw the addition of the infamous dragon colonoscopy.
Dolittle bombed hard, was almost universally panned by critics, and led to Downey Jr.’s leading man credentials and reputation as a box office draw taking a hit, ultimately causing a nine-figure write down for the studio. However, insider Daniel Richtman claims that the actor is actively pushing for a sequel and wants the majority of the cast members to return to voice various anthropomorphized animals.
This isn’t even the first time the tipster has proffered that the project is in the works, and it’s probably even more unlikely now than it was the first time around. Of course, Richtman has also named a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sequel, both The Mandalorian and the Star Wars franchise in general, an animated Super Mario Bros. movie, the DCEU, several Netflix projects, the second installment of Tom Holland’s Uncharted franchise, at least two Disney Plus MCU shows and more in the last couple of months alone as potential destinations for the actor, so it’s best not to read too much into the idea of Dolittle 2, as surely nobody would be stupid enough to fund it, right?
