Will Ferrell Walked Away From a $29M Elf Payday

Star reveals he turned down sequel because it just wasn't that good
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 30, 2021 6:30 AM CDT

Elf has become somewhat of a holiday cult classic, and hopes by fans of a sequel for the 2003 movie have been percolating for years, but its star, Will Ferrell, is now finally revealing why that sequel never came to be. The 54-year-old SNL alum tells The Hollywood Reporter that one had actually been written, and that he would've received $29 million to reprise his role, but in the end he just couldn't do it. "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would've been, like, 'Oh no, it's not good. I just couldn't turn down that much money,'" he says. "And I thought, 'Can I actually say those words? I don't think I can, so I guess I can't do the movie.'"

Ferrell had hedged about the possibility of a sequel in previous interviews. CNN notes that in 2013, he mentioned to Bravo that "it would look slightly pathetic if I tried to squeeze back into the Elf tights." And in a 2018 appearance on James Corden's late-night show, Ferrell seemed to express doubts over how good the original even was, admitting that there was a point during filming when he thought his career might be over. He told Corden, "[I was] thinking to myself this is either going to be a home run or people are gonna go, 'Whatever happened to you?'" (More Will Ferrell stories.)

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