The Bizarre, but Unsurprising Reason ‘A Knight’s Tale’ Sequel Never Happened

A Knight’s Tale is a movie that needs to be seen to be believed – both for how it wrangles a talented cast together, including the late, great Heath Ledger, and how it blends a medieval setting with a classic rock soundtrack. Given how beloved A Knight’s Tale is, one would think a sequel would be greenlit. It turns out that Netflix and Sony almost greenlit a sequel. However, those plans never went through with Netflix’s algorithm not favoring a sequel despite the original movie’s popularity. It’s a shame because writer/director Brian Hegleland would have taken the story in an unexpected yet entertaining direction – much like the original film did.

A Knight’s Tale

PG-13

Action

Adventure

Documentary

Drama

Romance

A Knight’s Tale is an action-comedy film written and directed by Brian Helgeland. Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a young apprentice of a knight who dies during a jousting tournament. To prove himself, he masquerades as the fallen knight and strives to win the tournament with the help of his friends.

Release Date

May 11, 2001

Director

Brian Helgeland

Cast

Heath Ledger , Rufus Sewell , Shannyn Sossamon , Paul Bettany , Laura Fraser , Mark Addy

Runtime

132

Main Genre

Action

Writers

Brian Helgeland

Studio

Sony Pictures Releasing

The Sequel to ‘A Knight’s Tale’ Could Have Featured Pirates and Addressed Heath Ledger’s Passing

In a conversation with Inverse about his career, Helgeland discusses A Knight’s Tale as well as penning the Denzel Washington/Tony Scott action thriller Man on Fire. He revealed more about a potential sequel idea he had that once again pitted Roland (Mark Addy), Wat (Alan Tudyk) and Chaucer (Paul Bettany) against Count Adhemar of Anjou (Rufus Sewell). This time, pirates would be involved:

When we finished
A Knight’s Tale
, we were already thinking about making the sequel as a pirate film. The plot revolved around Count Adhemar kidnapping Jocelyn and taking her to Constantinople. They end up as galley slaves after their boat is captured by pirates. There’s a prisoner on the boat who has a treasure map tattooed on his back, but he keeps getting flogged for indiscipline. The guys volunteer to take turns getting flogged in this prisoner’s place, so the map isn’t erased.

On paper, that sounds like a solid follow up to A Knight’s Tale; not only would it bring back the characters that audiences grew to love from the original film (or hate in Count Adhemar’s case), but it also had a new story with another great hook by swapping pirates instead of knife. Helgeland even revealed that Bettany pitched him the idea of William passing away during a war and having a daughter with Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon). William’s daughter then would be taught how to joust while hiding her identity as a woman. This plot point would serve as another update to the original plot of A Knight’s Tale while also addressing Ledger’s passing.

Netflix’s Algorithm Killed Any Chances of ‘A Knight’s Tale’ Sequel

Helgeland eventually tried to pitch the sequel to Netflix, but they turned it down. The writer/director understandably considered the response extremely baffling, especially as A Knight’s Tale is one of the more popular movies on Netflix, “I pitched it to Sony because they own the rights, and it seemed like they were interested in making it with Netflix, releasing it as a Netflix movie. My understanding is that Netflix tested this sequel idea through their algorithms, which indicated that it would not be successful. A Knight’s Tale seems to get more popular with every passing year; it’s the strangest thing.” It’s especially puzzling as some of the film’s stars have gone on to become industry powerhouses. For instance, Paul Bettany who played Geoffrey Chaucer is widely known today for playing Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Related

Paul Bettany & Elizabeth Olsen Had to Improvise Vision’s Death Scene in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

Bettany also discusses how he landed his role as JARVIS, and later Vision, in the MCU.

Ultimately, Helgeland’s story is proof that reliance on metrics and algorithms can be a roadblock to creativity within the film industry. Tracking film metrics is one thing if Netflix’s executives want to track the performance of a film; it’s another to determine the viability a film or TV project getting greenlit. Netflix hits like Stranger Things, Castlevania and Bridgerton became popular because someone decided to take a chance on a creator rather than a set of numbers. These revelations also may point to why creators could be reluctant to pitch ideas to Netflix. It’s unfortunately a bleak creative environment when the possibility of a new and exciting movie is stifled due to numbers and algorithms.

Another of Brian Helgeland’s Notable Movies Will Be Getting a Netflix Series

Even if Helgeland couldn’t get the sequel to A Knight’s Tale off the ground, one of his other films will be hitting Netflix in a different form. The streamer is adapting Man of Fire into a television series, with Kyle Killen (Halo) serving as showrunner. It continues Netflix’s latest trend of turning acclaimed movies into TV shows. The streamer recently released Ripley with Andrew Scott in the lead role. The neo-noir thriller series is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith‘s 1955 crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, which has seen several adaptations over the years but most notably made it to the big screen in 1999 with Matt Damon as the titular character. Also in 2024, the streamer debuted a spin-off TV show set in the same world as Guy Ritchie‘s 2019 The Gentlemen. It might be puzzling that Man on Fire and not A Knight’s Tale is receiving an update, especially as the movie continues to grow in popularity. While we might not be getting a sequel to A Knight’s Tale, it is at least a minor comfort knowing how the sequel could have expanded the story beyond the first movie.

A Knight’s Tale is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.

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