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As we’ve seen from the new Now You See Me 2 trailer, it’s magic vs. science as the Four Horsemen return from the shadows for a new act — one that’s not without its twists. Replacing Isla Fisher’s Henley as the “female Horseman” is Lizzy Caplan’s Lula, Morgan Freeman’s Thaddeus is out for revenge, and Daniel Radcliffe’s Walter comes into the mix. To get fans better situated with where we are now in the sequel, director Jon M. Chu spoke with EW on some of the secrets awaiting us.

First, a little background info, which may contain spoilers for those of you who haven't seen the first film. According to Chu, the Horsemen have been in hiding after Dylan (Mark Ruffalo) inducted them into the Eye and introduced them to its secrets. Dylan begins the sequel as the group’s leader, though the rest are questioning his leadership; he’s never been a member of their group and after all this time has passed they’re still in hiding. Though, they’ve been training and planning for their next big job, one that “they’re not privy to when it’s going to occur or exactly what it is yet.” The director described the sequel as “almost the second half of what they started” in the first and acknowledged a revenge plot.


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Image via Lionsgate

Chu continued:

In this movie, we really wanted to show that all magic has a mechanic to it, because these are highly specialized people who use storytelling, use distraction, use sleight of hand, mentalism, and hypnotism to achieve their allusion. We don’t necessarily do hocus pocus magic in this movie. We tried to do a lot of it practically. You’ll physically see these things. We created the contraptions and the things so we could actually shoot it on camera. What’s fun about this movie, too, especially Daniel [Radcliffe] — he’s this guy who loves magic, but has been burned by magic, so he’s turned to science as the real magic. He’s really bad at magic, actually. So Daniel Radcliffe in the movie is not good at magic. When he does finally accomplish magic, his favorite part is to tell everyone how he did it. That mechanic is a fun thing that we play off of as our team tries to unravel what he has put them in.

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Image via Lionsgate

Other newbies joining the film are Sanaa Lathan as a new head of the FBI, Jay Chou as a mysterious figure the Horsemen meet in Macau, and Lula. Speaking of Caplan’s character, Chu explained:

We definitely did not want to tread on Henley territory. She was so great and we loved Henley. Lula is actually a fan of the Horsemen and of the Eye and all these things of what she thinks is true. She has studied them as well. She gets dropped in here as someone who is eager. She doesn’t know how to lie. She just speaks the truth. She loves geek magic, which is basically like bloody, gutsy magic. Her magic is very gross, I guess. It’s very bloody and things are always being cut off.


Elsewhere, Chu said we might see what happened to Dylan’s father and “the events that sparked this whole thing since the first movie.” He continued:

You may see what happened to Dylan as a kid and what went down. It could go either way. Like I said, it’s continuing Dylan’s journey of this guy who held this revenge plot in his head for 30 years in that first movie. That’s a lot time to plan and have the long game go on and on. What happens to the man when he actually accomplishes that? What happens to that boy when he gets to the end of the journey and now the trick is over? Who is that person at that point? Is he an FBI agent? Is he a magician? Is he part of the Eye? Who is that person, and does he even know? I think that journey, emotionally for me, really got me into this movie.

Now You See Me: The Second Act (which Chu fought, and failed, to be called Now You Don’t) will hit theaters on June 10th. Check out some of the film's fantastic posters below:


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