With action epic Reign of Fire recently celebrating its 20th birthday, we asked Christian Bale about his memories of making the movie, and whether a belated sequel might be viable in a post-Game of Thrones world.
Reign of Fire hit screens (just over) 20 years ago. Directed by Rob Bowman, the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler, Izabella Scorupco, and Christian Bale.
Set in England in 2020, the story plays out after dragons have scorched the earth, and replaced humans as the dominant species. McConaughey plays Denton Van Zan and Bale is Quinn Abercromby, characters who initially clash before eventually teaming up to take back the planet.
The film made its $60 million budget back at the box office, but didn’t gross enough to make a sequel possible at the time.
What happens at the end of Reign of Fire?
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR REIGN OF FIRE AHEAD.
At the end of the movie, Van Zan is killed while bravely trying to take down the single male dragon. Quinn then lures the beast onto the ground, and fires an explosive down its throat, killing the creature.
There are then no sightings of dragons for the next three months, so our heroes start efforts to rebuild society, even making contact with other survivors in France.
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But with those original dragons rising up from the center of the earth, there’s no reason why there can’t be more monsters underground, with their own plans for world domination in a sequel…
What did Christian Bale say about a potential sequel?
While discussing new film The Pale Blue Eye, Christian Bale was surprised to hear that Reign of Fire had turned 20, then joked that he’d go out to celebrate.
In terms of memories of the shoot, Bale said: “I did enjoy making it – we got to be in Dublin. Unfortunately there was foot-and-mouth disease going on so we had to get sprayed down every time we arrived on set. But Wolf Kroeger the production designer built the most incredible sets and we did have a wonderful time making that.”
We then asked if – off the back of all that successful dragon action in Game of Thrones – Bale could make Reign of Fire 2 happen. “Alright,” came the none-too-serious response from Bale. “Consider it done. Just for you.” Then when the interview was over, Bale doubled down, saying he’d make the sequel, but for Dexerto’s eyes only. So watch this space…
Before Reign of Fire 2 (doesn’t) happen, Christian Bale can be seen in The Pale Blue Eye, which we’ve reviewed here.