The Thursday Murder Club book series by Richard Osman, which follows a group of four crime-solving retirees, has been wildly popular since making its debut in 2020. The Guardian called the books “the new Harry Potter,” and said Osman was the biggest debut author of the decade. (While Variety reported that Osman was paid more for the publishing rights to The Thursday Murder Club than any other debut author in a decade!) Now, Netflix has adapted the bestselling series into a film starring Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley.
Osman followed up The Thursday Murder Club, with a sequel, The Man Who Died Twice, in 2021; then came The Bullet That Missed, in 2022; and The Last Devil to Die in 2023, delighting fans who eagerly awaited each installment. The fifth in the series, The Impossible Fortune, will be out on September 23.
Given the success of the books, it was all but certain that there would be either a film or TV series based on them, though the process took a bit longer than expected. The first book hadn’t even come out when Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners acquired the rights to it, beating out over a dozen other studios, according to Variety.
In 2020, Ol Parker, the writer and director of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, was hired to direct The Thursday Murder Club film, but in 2024, Variety reported he had been replaced by Home Alone director Chris Columbus. Around the same time, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Ben Kingsley were all cast.
Will there be a second Thursday Murder Club movie? All signs point to yes. Here’s what we know so far.
Has a second movie been confirmed?
If Netflix were to continue in the same order as the book series, then The Man Who Died Twice would be up next. There has been no announcement from Netflix, Amblin, or Columbus about whether that’s happening. However, Columbus did allude to a sequel in an interview with the UK publication Film Stories, saying “If we’re lucky enough, and all signs seem to point in that direction, that we will be shooting a sequel or the next chapter—in the second movie,” he said.
Helen Mirren also seems interested. “[I’d do another] in a nanosecond,” she told Radio Times. “And it would be the team getting back together, which would be great. We did have a wonderful time shooting this. So all of us would jump at the chance, quite honestly.”
What would happen in it?
Given that The Thursday Murder Club stayed fairly faithful to the plot of the book, we can expect that a sequel would do the same. In The Man Who Died Twice Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) is surprised by the return of a friend from her days working in espionage, who is suspected of stealing diamonds and is being chased by dangerous men. At the same time, there’s a serial killer on the loose, giving the gang two mysteries to solve.
Who would star in it?
Any future film would be likely to have Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley come back as the four co-leads. Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays, who play detectives, would also likely pick up their roles, while actors whose characters only appear in book one, like David Tennant and Richard E. Grant, are less likely to appear.
This story will be updated.
