Gareth Evans is hard at work promoting his upcoming cult horror spookshow Apostle, which means the director has to field plenty of questions about the ass-kicking franchise that broke him out: The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, two action masterpieces filled with frenetic fight choreography that followed the police officer Rama, played with incredible physicality by martial artist Iko Uwais. Unfortunately, the answers to those questions seem to lean toward Evans shelving a possible third installment for good.

Speaking to Slashfilm, Evans chalked it up to simply being Raid'd out:

The Raid 1 and 2 were incredible for me, but I just didn’t want to be doing The Raids all the time. And the more time has gone on from that, the less interested I’ve been to go back there. What we did with The Raid 2, we kinda close that off nicely, so it didn’t really appeal to me to jump back into that world again.

This gels with what Evans has said before, when the filmmaker hinted at a feeling of franchise fatigue [via Cinemablend]:

The Raid 3 was… at one point it was on my radar. I had a full idea. I know what the storyline would have been. But I think enough time has passed now that I think I’m not likely to go back and revisit it. We had a lot of fun making those films, and I think we came to a nice, sort of natural conclusion with it. And I think sometimes you can have a little bit too much of a good thing.

It's almost an admirable stance to take in this age of Marvel and DC dominance. On the other hand, both Raid films kick an almost unhealthy amount of ass and a third film would round(house kick) the story off nicely. For now, we'll have to settle for Apostle, which our own Haleigh Foutch report doesn't contain much combat but still takes on-screen violence to new, glorious heights. "[Evans] proves that his knack for tapping into the visceral transcends beyond kinetic stunt work," she writes in her review, "he can also make your skin crawl with skull-crunching, flesh-mangling, limb-tearing set-pieces."

What do you think? Do you want one more entry in the Raid franchise or is it time to leave it in the rearview mirror? Let us know in the comments below.

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Image via Sony
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Image via Sony Pictures Classics
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Image via Sony