Bringing Dr. Evil out of retirement for a Super Bowl commercial was always going to lead to one question: Is Mike Myers planning an Austin Powers comeback? It is now twenty years since Myers last appeared on the big screen as Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and a number of other characters including the titular Goldmember in the third film of the series. According to the actor, he would love to bring the retro spy back for Austin Powers 4, but for now, he cannot confirm or deny the existence of such a project that may or may not be under consideration.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was a moderate success when it was released in 1997, bringing in just under $70 million from its $16.5 million budget. Of course this meant a sequel was greenlit and two years later the super-spy was back in The Spy Who Shagged Me, with double the budget but a whopping $312 million box office win. Myers was once again had his budget doubled for 2002’s Goldmember, and while the film pulled in slightly less revenue that its predecessor, it was still a substantial hit. However, the reviews for Goldmember suggested that the spy saga was running on empty and were not exactly glowing. Probably for this reason alone, the Austin Powers party wagon came to a stop right then.
Myers has been revisiting another of his old characters in recent years, reprising his Wayne’s World role in a few sketches, and with this year’s Super Bowl seeing Dr. Evil, along with Austin Powers alum Rob Lowe, Seth Green and Mindy Sterling, returning to screens in an advertisement for General Motors, there are plenty of fans now calling for a fourth movie, which Myers told Today is something that he would “love to do.” He said:
“I would love to do one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll see. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a program, should it exist or not exist.”
Could We Get An Austin Powers TV Show Rather Than Austin Powers 4?
It is interesting that Myers chose to use the term “a program” when talking about a possible revisit to the world of Austin Powers, rather than calling it a project or movie. With so many older franchises being successfully revisited at the moment, especially those originally released in the 1990s in that sweet remake range of 20-30 years old, the time would be right for an Austin Powers revival, and there is no reason why a TV series couldn’t work just as well as a movie. Considering the whole Powers idea was a parody of James Bond movies and old spy serials, a limited series with cliffhanger episodes would fall right in Myer’s ballpark.
Previously Myers spoke about potentially making a fourth Powers movie that made Dr. Evil the central character. Having reprised the role of Dr. Evil for the General Motors commercial, it could be enough of a kick-start to see Myers reprising both roles again soon in some form.