Why Will Ferrell Turned Down ‘Elf’ Sequel Despite $29 Million Offer

Will Ferrell was offered a lot of money to do an “Elf” sequel, but he turned it down for a reason.

The 54-year-old Hollywood actor opened up about the offer he received to star in a second installment of the hit holiday movie in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Thursday. He claimed he rejected a $29 million payday because he didn’t like the story pitched for the sequel.

In the interview, Ferrell admitted that when he did the 2003 feel-good Christmas comedy, he actually had doubts about its reception from the public. He was surprised to see that even “frat boys” liked the low-budget PG film.

“Elf” also received mostly positive reviews from movie critics. The film went on to beat Ferrell’s expectations when it secured a whopping $220 million at the box office.

The success of the first film prompted producers to try to cash in on the hype and plan a sequel. A sequel was written and was pitched to the “Saturday Night Live” alum. Surprisingly, despite allegedly being offered a $29 million paycheck, he declined the project.

According to Ferrell, he decided to walk away from the offer after reading the script. He noted that the people behind it wanted to come up with something akin to a do-over due to the rehashed premise.

“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.’ And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie,’” he said.

The first film centered on Ferrell’s character Buddy, who was raised to adulthood by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) when he was accidentally transported to the North Pole as a baby. Unable to fit in among Santa’s elves, Buddy decided to look for his real father in New York.

Recalling the time when he portrayed the adult character with childlike behavior and wore brightly colored tights and an elf costume, Ferrell thought that the film “could be the end” for him. Surprisingly, it actually helped cement his status as a box office success early on, as per Us Weekly.

While Ferrell said that he turned down the project because of the script, his co-star James Caan, who played his on-screen father Walter Hobbs in the first film, had a different take on the canned movie.

In September 2020, when he appeared on the radio show “The Fan in Cleveland,” Caan said that the “Elf” sequel never materialized because of an alleged dispute between Ferrell and director Jon Favreau.

“The director and Will didn't get along very well. Will wanted to do it, and he didn't want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things,” he was quoted as saying by People.