With so many franchises continuing to dominate cinema broadly, it can be hard to get excited about reboots, sequels and prequels, but one upcoming franchise return is particularly exciting just 12 months ahead of the film’s release. The crime genre is often broken down into sub-genres due to how versatile the entire segment is.
From espionage where the central characters engage in spycraft, to darker crime stories that often approach a story from an entirely new perspective, crime films are fascinating and diverse. But, among the many divisions that are contained within it, one of the most compelling and entertaining has to be the heist. Heist stories frequently bring together a ragtag group of lovable cons to take on a big job, and typically include a trademark twist or two.
And when it comes to heist movies, there is no franchise with more instant recognition than the Ocean’s trilogy. Beginning in 2001, with Ocean’s Eleven, the first three movies redefined and repopularized the heist crime genre in the 2000s, and now, the series is set to expand with no less than two new releases in the next couple of years.
The Ocean’s Franchise Will Return June 25, 2027
June 25, 2027, will see the franchise return with a prequel movie starring Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie as the parents of Danny Ocean. The story is set in 1960s Europe, when the senior Ocean’s played by Cooper and Robbie, where they attempt to pull off a legendary heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix.
Evidently, the film is setting up that Danny Ocean, as played by George Clooney in the rest of the franchise, learned everything about heisting from his parents, and it introduces some fun color and background to the series that has previously gone unexplored.
However, beyond the larger plot description, there are very few other details about the project or the cast. The film will be directed and written by Bradley Cooper, who is also co-starring in the project, and it’s difficult to say how much, if at all, the film will tie in with the next major release in the series, Ocean’s 14, which is currently in development and likely to land in theaters around 2028.
How The New Ocean’s Movie Can Live Up To The Franchise’s Best
The Ocean’s prequel has incredible potential for the franchise, as the movie is unencumbered by other lore established in the original trilogy, and they can largely experiment with the plot and approach to telling a heist story. Whereas, in the original trilogy, the film’s had to continually up the stakes and make things more intense in order to maintain interest.
Even the titles of the films, beginning with Ocean’s Eleven, relied on the characters recruiting a team of 11 individual accomplices with unique skillsets to carry out the job. Subsequently, the next movie had to raise that by one, and so on. Ocean’s 14 is already tied into requiring a massive cast just for the sake of the continuity, which creates an unfortunate limitation that could take time away from some of the more intriguing central characters.
Regardless, the Ocean’s prequel also features a fresh-faced cast, and it promises to build out the universe of these stories, which will end up making the entire thing more enjoyable. It also faces challenges, such as the enormous weight on Cooper’s shoulders as a lead, the writer, and the director, but this is not the first film where Cooper has taken on all three roles like this.
Likewise, Robbie will take on a producer role for the film, as she has done with several of her most recent releases, which suggests she will have increased responsibility and risk tied to the success of this film. With all of that in mind, the Ocean’s prequel has a lot at stake, and a lot of confident and competent people putting it together, which could lead to this being one of the best entries in the series.
