Will There Ever Be Another Underworld Movie?
There are no immediate plans for another Underworld movie with Kate Beckinsale
Whether it’s Blade or Buffy, everyone has a favorite vampire-slaying badass. But for fans of the Underworld series, there is no replacement for Kate Beckinsale’s leather-clad vampire Serene. There have been five Underworld movies so far, including a prequel, but since the last film came out back in 2017, fans are hungry (so to speak) for another installment.
We decided to investigate the odds of another Underworld movie happening with Kate Beckinsale, but it looks like that won’t be happening for several different reasons.
Even though we love both Underworld and Kate Beckinsale, it looks like audiences weren’t exactly flocking to theaters to see the most recent installment in the franchise. When Underworld: Blood Wars came out, it soon became the most critically-hated film in the entire franchise. It has a 21 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and even though all the previous films were deemed rotten, this last one was considered the worse of the bunch.
Still, critically-reviled movies get sequels all the time, so if that last Underworld movie had been a box office smash, we’d probably see Kate Beckinsale suiting back up in her black leather outfit once more.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case: it only made $81.8 million against a budget of $35 million, meaning that it was both a critical and commercial flop. That alone is likely to keep us from getting any kind of proper sequel with Beckinsale’s character because audiences have proven that is no longer enough to get them to buy a theater ticket.
Another reason we feel confident that there won’t be another Underworld film starring Kate Beckinsale is that she has said so herself. For example, in a 2018 interview with Variety, the topic of whether Beckinsale would return to the franchise that made her famous came up. With a bluntness you rarely find in Hollywood, she simply said that she “wouldn’t return” to the franchise because “I’ve done plenty of those.”
However, even though the actor can be blunt, she can also be fickle. In another interview with Variety three years later, she stated that she was always pushing for a “mashup” between Underworld and Blade, implying that a team-up (or perhaps just a grudge match) with the Marvel hero would be enough for Kate Beckinsale to return to playing Selene.
She also mentioned that she kept her character’s iconic pants, but she joked that this was less about future movie hopes and more because “You never know who you want to impress.”
There were loose plans to join Underworld and Blade together, with Kate Beckinsale and Wesley Snipes returning to their respective roles. Those plans never went anywhere, though, because Marvel wanted to recast Blade for the MCU.
At one point, there actually were loose plans to join Underworld and Blade together, with Kate Beckinsale and Wesley Snipes returning to their respective roles. Those plans never went anywhere, though, because Marvel wanted to recast Blade for the MCU.
Even weirder was a brief-lived plan to do a mashup film that combined Underworld and the Resident Evil franchise, something that would have added zombies and other strange creatures to a universe already filled with vampires and werewolves.
While we can only speculate, it seems that another reason a return to Underworld isn’t on Kate Beckinsale’s radar is that she is enjoying performing in other films rather than being boxed in by a particular franchise.
Since the last Underworld movie, she has dipped her toes into television acting with series like The Widow and Guilty Party, and she got to kick ass in some exciting new ways with the action film Jolt. Talented actors like Beckinsale enjoy the challenge of bringing new characters to life, and it’s likely she’d rather keep receiving offers for exciting new roles rather than simply suiting up as a warrior vampire for the sixth time.
And that brings us to the good news, bad news portion of our report. Given everything from the poor box office performance and low ratings of the last film to Kate Beckinsale’s own words, we don’t think she’s likely to appear in an Underworld sequel or prequel ever again.
With that being said, there have been persistent rumors about this franchise getting a reboot, which means it’s entirely possible we’re just a few years away from getting an Underworld film without Kate Beckinsale. Honestly, though, without her iconic performance to draw people in, we doubt there is much public appetite for a reboot of such a tired and played-out franchise.
