Play ball! A Dodgeball sequel is officially in the works — and Vince Vaughn has reportedly signed on to reprise the role of Peter La Fleur.
Deadline was first to report the news on Thursday, April 27, noting that the script will come from Jordan VanDina and is based on an idea from Vaughn, 53. The outlet confirmed that follow-up movie is in early development at 20th Century Studios.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story hit theaters in 2004 and starred Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Justin Long, Christine Taylor and more comedic actors. In the original, Peter (Vaughn) tries to save his rundown Average Joe’s Gym from being bought by White Goodman’s (Stiller) ultra-swanky Globo Gym.
Since he doesn’t have the funds to save his facility, Peter enlists some of his usual gymgoers to compete in the Las Vegas dodgeball tournament and win its $50,000 grand prize.
Stephen Root, Alan Tudyk, Joel David Moore, Chris Williams, Missi Pyle, Gary Cole, Jason Bateman, William Shatner, Hank Azaria and the late Rip Torn also starred in the comedy.
Ahead of the sequel news, Stiller, 57, and his wife, Taylor, 51, reunited with Vaughn and Long, 44, in June 2017 to promote Omaze’s charity campaign — and dressed up in their Dodgeball costumes.
In the clip, rivals Peter La Fleur and White Goodman took a few jabs at each other before asking fans to pick a side and sign up for a chance to win real-life dodgeball game with the Zoolander star.
“It was really strange and fun. I didn’t know what it would be like, because I was away from it for so long and I never really thought there would be any reason to do the character again,” Stiller told Entertainment Weekly at the time, revealing how the reunion transpired. “I called Vince up, and he immediately said, ‘I’m in, let’s do it, it’s for a good cause.’ Then we got Justin Long and Christine Taylor and Missi Pyle and everybody; it was really exciting for us all to get back together. So we got our Halloween costumes, and luckily it’s Spandex so it all still kind of fit.”
Five years later, Long teased that the cast would possibly be getting back together for a feature film after he worked with Vaughn on 2022’s Christmas with the Campbells.
“Vince had been telling me that he has this great idea for a sequel. I don’t know if he had yet pitched it to Ben, but I kind of set up the pitch, I felt like I should facilitate the pitch,” the New Girl alum told ComicBook.com in October 2022, explaining that he recently spoke with Stiller on his “Life Is Short” podcast about making a Dodgeball sequel.
Long told the outlet: “Of course I would love to do it and I hope that it ends up happening, but I think Ben is a little — what he told me on that podcast was that he’s a little trepidatious about doing a sequel to something so beloved, something that people enjoy so much that.”
The Accepted actor noted that it can be “very risky” to do a second movie when the first was so beloved.
“You don’t wanna s—t on the original, you want something just as good. So, I think [Ben’s] a little wary of that, of trying to recreate something that was very specific to that time,” Long continued. “But I hope he comes around on it. Vince is a very convincing person, so I’m just hoping Vince can convince him with his idea. It’s a funny idea, I don’t wanna say what it is.”
