We're gonna need a bigger Den for all these Thieves

You can't walk around anymore without tripping and falling into a Den Of Thieves. Christian Gudegast's most recent installment in his heist franchise, Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera, opened at number one at the box office and has grossed over $40 million worldwide. On Thursday, it was announced that Lionsgate, Tucker Tooley Entertainment, and G-BASE are developing Den Of Thieves 3. Series stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler are expected to return for the third film, with Butler serving as a producer through his G-BASE banner. Gudegast is in talks with Lionsgate to write and direct.

Den Of Thieves introduced the world to Butler's Detective Nick O'Brien, a.k.a. Big Nick, a brash cop who crossed paths with a criminal mastermind, Donnie (Jackson). In the sequel, the rivals move from opposite sides of the law to the same team as Nick joins Donnie's crew in Europe for his latest score. "Funnier and more focused on the homosocial bonding of its leads, Pantera is lighter on action and heavier on scenes of Nick and Donnie crashing scooters and burping up shawarma," The A.V. Club's Matt Schimkowitz wrote in his B- review of the film. "The movie lives and dies by the chemistry between Butler and Jackson, coasting a bit on Butler’s dirtbag charisma to get him on the audience’s side."

In conversation with The Playlist earlier this month, actor and producer Butler said there was no plan in place to continue the story past the original 2018 film. "I never thought of having a second one until the first one came out, and we saw more than the initial audiences because it performed well at the movies. But it developed this life. I wish more people had seen it on a big screen, but when people started watching it, it really developed. It had an aura and a feeling about a uniqueness, which is why we’re now here with the second one," he said. As for the possibility of a threequel, he teased at the time, "Christian pitched an idea the other day, and I liked it. It was just very kind of quick and definitely with the excitement of this movie. So that might be the way we go, but I do love the conclusion that we found. Yes, it does beg for a third, but I thought it did it in a cool way because, even if you never had a third, the ending is still awesome."