The Real Reason There¡¯s Never Been an Elf Movie Sequel

Hollywood does not leave good things alone. If something makes a lot of money, chances are it’ll get turned into a massive sequel with diminishing creative returns. This is true even in the pantheon of Christmas movies. Home Alone got a sequel just two years after its release, with several other follow-ups ensuing in the years afterward. Netflix, meanwhile, gave The Christmas Chronicles a follow-up in 2020, and Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause received two proper sequel movies. Even Jingle All the Way eventually received a straight-to-video follow-up.

Not even “the most wonderful time of the year” is exempt from Hollywood’s love for endless sequels and cash-grabs. One cinematic Christmastime staple, though, has been spared from this unholy tradition. Despite endless attempts to get one off the ground, Elf has never received a proper sequel, for a multitude of reasons.

Will Ferrell Won’t Allow An Elf Sequel

Will Ferrell has never been totally against reprising familiar characters; some of his earliest movie work was playing the Bond-style villain Mustafa in the first two Austin Powers movies. He would also reprise his early 2000s roles of Ron Burgundy (Anchorman) and Mugatu (Zoolander) in big 2010s sequels, while the first two Lego Movie installments featured him providing voice work for characters like Lord Business and The Man Upstairs. The concept of going back to a character is nothing new nor off-limits to an SNL alumni like Ferrell…except for Buddy the Elf. That’s a character Ferrell’s never reprised in the years since 2003, a critical factor instantly making any possible Elf 2 a no-go.

In December 2013, Ferrell made it clear that, though he was out promoting Anchorman 2, Elf 2 was not on the horizon. Ferrell explained on Watch What Happens Live that it just felt like it would be “slightly pathetic” to return to Buddy at his age. This was a character defined by youthful exuberance. To suddenly remind folks of the inevitable passing of time with Buddy would just undercut everything that made the character special. Plus, Ferrell has never, in his time as an actor, struggled to find work, so it’s not like an Elf sequel could financially incentivize him to break his staunch “no more Buddy” rule.

Original Elf director Jon Favreau, on the other hand, feels a little differently. Being the architect of the Star Wars TV landscape, not to mention the helmer of big Disney remakes and two Iron Man movies, Favreau is way more comfortable with franchises and serialized storytelling. At the start of 2016, the filmmaker reaffirmed that Elf 2 could still happen down the line. A few years later, Elf co-star James Caan alleged that Elf 2 never materialized solely because Ferrell and Favreau never got along in making the original movie.

Caan’s comments about Favreau and Ferrell’s dynamic is pure speculation. However, his comments about Elf 2 looking like a done deal at one point actually echo later 2021 comments from Ferrell to The Hollywood Reporter. Here, Ferrell recalled how he was going to be paid a whopping $29 million to play Buddy the Elf again in a movie that had a finished script. However, Ferrell didn’t like the screenplay, and, feeling he couldn’t promote and anchor a movie he didn’t believe in artistically, he abandoned that weighty payday. By the time Elf’s 20th anniversary rolled around, even Favreau had resigned himself to the reality that it didn’t need a sequel.

Warner Bros. Is Still Exploiting Elf

Part of why Warner Bros. (which inherited Elf once it merged with sister company New Line Cinema in 2008) might not be scrambling to get Elf 2 off the ground is simply that the studio is still wringing lots and lots of dollars out of the original Elf. Merchandise for the original Elf still flies off the shelves when it gets chilly outside. A stage musical version of Elf, meanwhile, is still raking up dollars, including in a 2024 Broadway revival. With the initial Elf movie still being a lucrative property, Elf 2 is superfluous, or at least not immediately essential to WB’s bottom line.

More importantly, the refusal to come back as Buddy the Elf shows a level of admirable creative commitment on the part of Ferrell. In this modern world, everything from Blue Streak to I Know What You Did Last Summer is getting exploited for legacy sequels seeing actors reprise classic roles for a quick dose of nostalgia. Elf 2 would fit snugly into that pop culture norm. Thankfully, Ferrell’s refusal to tarnish people’s memories of the original Elf has kept that sequel at bay. Better yet, it’s allowed him to expand his creative palette by opening up time for other movies like Will & Harper or Barbie. There’s really no end to the advantages of just letting Elf 2 never get unwrapped.

Elf is streaming on Hulu and Max.