Now You Don’t’ Just Going to Ignore the Existence of One of Its Best Characters?

The Now You See Me franchise has proven to be a unique Hollywood success story, as the original film was an entirely original project that grew popular enough to inspire a recurring franchise. Although it’s been nearly a decade since the release of Now You See Me 2, this year’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t sees the return of the characters Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Thadeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who are initiating the young magicians Charlie (Justice Smith), Bosco (Justice Smith), and June (Ariana Greenblatt) to be new members of “The Four Horsemen.” However, Lizzy Caplan is curiously absent from the cast of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, despite playing the main character of Lula May in Now You See Me 2.

Why Is Lizzy Caplan Not in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t?’

Caplan played an important role in Now You See Me 2, as the film needed to add a new member to “The Four Horseman” after Fisher was unable to reprise her role due to scheduling conflicts. It may have been easier to simply recast Henley or add in another character that fulfilled the same role, but Caplan turned Lula into an interesting new team member, whose skills complemented those of Daniel, Merritt, and Jack. While the Four Horsemen have been pulling off heists together for several years, Lula has learned the art of card tricks, sleight-of-hand, and deception on her own, albeit in a more unorthodox way. Although the Four Horsemen are initially desperate to add someone else to their team so that they can avoid the threats made against them by their nemesis, Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), Lula ends up adding an important perspective to the group.

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Lula brings a different dynamic to the group, as Caplan’s aptitude for physical comedy ensured that the film could add more extravagant sight gags, including a particularly memorable sequence in which the Four Horsemen stage a robbery using playing cards. If there was a weak part in the first film, it was that the romance between Henley and Daniel was not that compelling. However, the relationship between Jack and Lula in Now You See Me 2 works much better, as Franco and Caplan have great chemistry together. Given that Lula is a new initiate to the group and Jack has always felt like the “lesser” member of the team, there was reason to believe that these two characters would relate to one another. While the second film ended in a way that gave a satisfying conclusion to the character arc of Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), the former leader of the Four Horsemen, it suggested that Lula’s role in the group was just beginning.

The ‘Now You See Me’ Franchise Should Embrace Its Past

Even if there is a canonical reason for her absence, Lula could have had an interesting character arc in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Since the new film involves the original team becoming mentors to a new generation of young magicians, it would be exciting to see Lula’s transition, as she was a fan of the Four Horsemen who eventually became their equal. While Fisher is reprising her role as Henley in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, there’s no reason that this franchise shouldn’t include more than one powerful female hero; in fact, it would be interesting to see how Fisher and Caplan would play off each other, as these two characters have not previously been given the opportunity to interact.

Caplan is a great actress who has been getting even better, as she recently delivered the best performance of her entire career in Fleishman is in Trouble, which also co-starred Eisenberg. Although she has had other strong television roles in Zero Day and Masters of Sex, Caplan deserves to return to her role in a movie franchise she helped keep alive. Given the announcement that a fourth installment in the Now You See Me franchise is also in development, it would be a shame if Caplan were once again denied the opportunity to return as Lula.