Could a fourth Austin Powers movie finally be happening? According to a new report via Puck, New Line "would like to make a Dr. Evil movie," though there are also said to be reservations about the potential film after the actor's Netflix series The Pentaverate was not well-received by fans. But even if that show didn't turn out as well as Netflix and Myers had hoped, the Austin Powers trilogy remains popular with fans, and news of a new installment of that series may generate a lot of interest.
The Austin Powers movie series began with the original film, dubbed Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which hit theaters in 1997. The James Bond parody movie was followed by two sequels, 1999's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and 2002's Austin Powers in Goldmember. There have been rumors and rumblings ever since of a fourth movie, but the gears never managed to get turning on another sequel.
Perhaps putting a spin on the franchise by focusing on Dr. Evil could be what gives new life to the Austin Powers series. The success of films like Joker, which features an established supervillain as the protagonist, has may help convince New Line that there's money to be made with a Dr. Evil-centric movie. Given that Mike Myers reprised his Dr. Evil role earlier this year for a Super Bowl ad, chances are he'd be up for bringing the character back for a feature film, if the new report turns out to be accurate.
Mike Myers Has Been Teasing Austin Powers 4 for Years
Mike Myers has teased Austin Powers 4 for a while, and even over the past year, he's continued to hint at another movie in the franchise possibly happening. Back in February, he said in a Today interview that he'd "love" to make another film if the gets the chance.
“I would love to do one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll see," Myers said, teasing that such a project might be in gestation. "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a program, should it exist or not exist.”
Director Jay Roach, who helmed all three prior movies, also told MovieWeb back in 2020 that he's hoping to come back to direct a part four. At that time, he said that there were actually talks about Austin Powers 4 quite often, but they were still trying to figure out what the best idea for that movie would be before it could move forward.
"We talk about it once a month, but until we know what it specifically wants to be," Roach said. "I don't disagree that there is a classic battle in the Austin films, that of sort of love versus fear and paranoia, and color versus colorlessness, and music versus fear. Dr. Evil, there are some aspects of the way the world works right now that seem very Dr. Evil-y to me. I'll just put it that way. But no, we don't have a specific plan for anything right now."