'Now You See Me 2' Director Explains Why the Film Wasn't Called 'Now You Don't'

“It’s like the perfect literal title.”

The Now You See Me movies the perfect example of a series where the ingredients somehow came together to form something that fans still have a lot of fondness for. The heist thriller franchise, which centers around a team of illusionists known as the “Four Horsemen” who pull off bank heists during their on-stage performances and then give the money to their audiences, has become much-loved in the eight years since the first movie came out in 2013. The sequel, Now You See Me 2, was released three years later, and a third film is supposedly in development with Benedict Cumberbatch set to join the cast, as well as a spinoff film based around Jay Chou‘s character Li.

When Collider had a chance to sit down with director Jon M. Chu in promotion of his newly-released musical adaptation of In the Heights, we couldn’t resist asking him one of our most burning questions about the Now You See Me sequel (which Chu directed): why the hell wasn’t it called Now You Don’t?

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Turns out it was all down to marketing concerns, as Chu revealed, but he’s right there with the fans who were hoping for the obvious wordplay in the second film’s title:

“We tried very hard to call it Now You Don’t, but the marketing department — this is true — said, ‘We don’t like the word don’t in a title.’ And we were like, ‘Whuh? This is like the perfect literal title.’ And they were like, ‘No, we’re calling it Now You See Me 2.’ Can we at least get an extra word or something? … It breaks my heart when I see that, because I’m like, ‘Yeah, we should’ve called it that.’ I agree.”

In the Heights is currently playing in theaters. Check back with Collider for more of our interview with Chu.

KEEP READING: ‘Wicked’ Movie Director Jon M. Chu on What Fans Can Expect: “For Me It’s Finding the Truth of Each Song”

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