The Raid Director Gives Surprising Update on Cult-Classic Trilogy (And We’re Hopeful)

The Raid 3 has seemingly been on ice for over a decade, but director Gareth Evans has indicated that it might finally come out of stasis to finish the trilogy. While promoting his new Netflix action movie Havoc, Evans spoke to EW regarding the possibility of making The Raid 3, describing the status of the sequel as “Definitely maybe,” and elaborating: “I’ll see when it can happen, if it can happen, is my really sort of non-committal answer to that question.” Evans also indicated that his revived interest in The Raid 3 was sparked by a reunion with The Raid franchise’s leading man, Iko Uwais, during a trip to Indonesia two years ago.

Though Evans hadn’t seen Uwais in seven years, he stated that “We keep in touch, we WhatsApp each other all the time,” and that he regards Uwais as “my younger kid brother” due to the pair’s history and working relationship. Of the meeting, Evans stated that he “came away feeling like I got a new concept for what The Raid 3 could be…So I haven’t dismissed it outright, and it might be a conversation to reopen.” While not a definitive confirmation of The Raid 3 being on the cards, it is nonetheless plenty to spark the enthusiastic attention of fans of The Raid movies.

2012’s The Raid: Redemption stars Uwais as a young Jakarta cop named Rama, whose police unit is tasked with taking down a tenement building full of criminals and ruled over by crime boss Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy), with the unit eventually finding themselves trapped in the building and battling a lethal assault from its tenets. 2014’s The Raid 2 sees the surviving Rama sent on an undercover mission to infiltrate Jakarta’s Bangun crime family, only for another shadowy underworld boss Bejo (Alex Abbad) to kick off a gang war between the Bangun family and rival Yakuza gang.

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The Raid movies have both been heralded as two of the greatest action films ever made, with much praise directed as the two movie’s excellent fight choreography and blend of hard-hitting action with chilling horror movie-style suspense and tension. Iko Uwais and several of his co-stars from The Raid films like Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman, have also gone on to become huge martial arts movie stars. Uwais would even make to jump to directing himself with the upcoming Timur, while Taslim will be seen in 2025’s Hong Kong martial arts ensemble The Furious, and Ruhian and Rahman made a huge impact battling Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

Gareth Evans first met Iko Uwais when the former had traveled from his native Wales to Indonesia to film a documentary on Indonesia’s indigenous martial art, Pencak Silat. While filming Uwais for the documentary, Evans was so impressed with Uwais’ skill as a martial artist, he cast the first-time actor as the lead of his feature directorial debut, 2009’s Merantau. The Raid movies subsequently came about when Evans was unable to get the necessary funding for his next project, Berandal, with Evans then making The Raid: Redemption with Uwais, and later retooling the Berandal script into what became The Raid 2.

Ultimately, it was Evans’ return to the U.K. after several years of filmmaking in Indonesia that reportedly led to him losing interest in The Raid 3, though Evans never went as far as to declare the sequel cancelled outright. However, simply meeting Iko Uwais again seems to have rekindled his interest in concluding what was his original planned trilogy for The Raid franchise. In the end, while actors, writers, and directors move on from planned projects and franchises all the time, Evans’ reunion with Uwais, and the possibility of The Raid 3 being revived as a result, is proof positive of how quickly that can change even when a door is seemingly shut, and the value of “Never say never” being a guiding mindset in the movie business.

The Raid movies are available to rent and buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies.