Master & Commander 2? Why The Sequel Never Happened
Jessica Wilkins Master and Commander was an Oscar-nominated, critically acclaimed epic starring Russell Crowe, but it never spawned a franchise — here's why.
Master and Commander 2 never happened, and there are a few reasons why the franchise Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was intended to launch didn't materialize, with the characters instead set to a appear in a prequel. Directed by Peter Weir and starring Russell Crowe, Master and Commander is a 2003 movie based on Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels about Captain Jack Aubrey, the commander of the HMS Surprise, who sailed for the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
Master and Commander combined elements from several of O'Brian's novels, but the basic story was adapted from The Far Side of the World. Set in 1805, Captain Jack Aubrey is tasked with battling a French privateer, the Acheron, to prevent Napoleon's navy from gaining control of the Pacific. Aubrey's closest friend on his ship containing 197 souls is Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), the ship's surgeon. Despite Aubrey's skills as a seaman, the Acheron continually outsails and outfights him. As the situation worsens for the Surprise, Aubrey continues to chase his enemy across the oceans, and Maturin forces the Captain to confront the possibility that his own ego is placing his ship and his crew in danger. To achieve its impressive verisimilitude, Master and Commander shot for several months on an authentically-created set in a water tank soundstage, with an additional 10-days of filming on the high seas on a budget of $150 million.
Despite its critical acclaim and 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Peter Weir, Master and Commander only grossed $212-million worldwide. The historical epic also lost out to Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at the Oscars. Even though Russell Crowe was at the height of his movie stardom after Gladiator in 2000, Master and Commander didn't dominate the box office as 20th Century Fox's head Tom Rothman, who championed the expensive prestige picture, had hoped. Since the film was not profitable, the sequel that the filmmakers wanted weren't greenlit — and 17 years later, there are still no plans for a Master and Commander sequel, despite Crowe hinting in 2017 that he heard "whispers" that the sequel could finally happen. Instead, 20th Century Studios (as it's now known after Disney's acquisition in 2019) announced that they would produce a Master and Commander prequel movie as a part of the franchise, written by Patrick Ness, and likely based on the first book in the Aubrey-Maturin series, which features the first meeting of the main characters. This would likely mean recasting the roles of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, given Crowe's and Bettany's age and the earlier setting in their lives.
One of the reasons Master and Commander underperformed is that the year when it was released saw audiences' tastes transitioning to fantasy and superhero movies. Spider-Man set records the year before and X2: X-Men United was a blockbuster just months before Master and Commander bowed in November 2003. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was also a monster hit in the summer of 2003, and Johnny Depp's inaugural pirate fantasy contained all of the escapism that audiences were looking for — and it indeed spawned a Pirates franchise.
By comparison, Master and Commander was decidedly aimed at adults and mature audiences, but it arrived at a time when the sweeping historical epic was rapidly going out of fashion as a favored Hollywood genre. Similarly, Wolfgang Peterson's Troy failed in the summer of 2004. Even though Russell Crowe's Gladiator, which was released just three years before Master and Commander, was a box office hit that racked up critical acclaim and Oscars, audiences' tastes changed almost overnight in the decade of the 2000s. Indeed, the dominant movies at the box office are Marvel's superhero movies and Disney live-action remakes, which appeal to all audiences, leaving little chance a film like Master and C0mmander could have become a blockbuster in that marketplace.
Weir saw the writing on the wall back in 2005 when he said that that Master and Commander 2 was "most unlikely" because "it did well...ish at the box office, [but] it didn't generate that monstrous, rapid income that provokes a sequel." The fact Master and Commander's biggest supporter at Fox, Tom Rothman, is out of the picture entirely, on top of Disney buying 20th Century Fox in 2019, likely sank the chances of Russell Crowe getting to play Captain Jack Aubrey again in Master and Commander 2. Although fans haven't lost out entirely.
With Patrick Ness (whose efforts have focused on YA novels and the similarly youth-focused Chaos Walking, an adaptation of his own novel) on board to write the new prequel entry, it seems 20th Century Studios has decided to reorient the franchise and target a younger audience, following in the footsteps of its competition, the Pirates franchise. While fans of the original installment were certainly waiting a long time for Master and Commander 2, the sequel is confirmed not to be happening, but at least they will get the chance to see Aubrey and Maturin on the high seas again.
