The 2011 vampire hunter film Priest failed to sink its teeth into the box office but that hasn’t stopped fan interest in another go with Priest 2: Faithless Dawn.
Paul Bettany led the cast of Priest, a movie in which the man behind Marvel’s Vision starred as a man of the cloth who wasn’t afraid to bust a few vampiric heads when his niece (played by Lily Collins) is kidnapped by a pack of bloodthirsty dracs.
It might be slightly surprising that there is any demand at all for another Priest film. The first movie, which lurked into theaters on May 13, 2011, a mere two weeks after the MCU’s Thor, certainly didn’t light the world on fire.
On a budget of $60 million, Priest wound up sucking up only $78.3 million in worldwide revenue. More damningly, its Rotten Tomatoes score settled at a paltry, “rotten” 15%. Suffice it to say that Sony was never in a hurry to return to this cinematic world.
Fans Are Itching for More Priest Movies
A trailer for a sequel to Priest has surfaced on YouTube. This follow-up, supposedly titled Priest 2: Faithless Dawn, lists fan-favorite Tom Hardy as its star. The video has sparked viral interest from users with over 900 thousand views and 3,000 likes. The only problem is that this trailer is 100% bogus.
Sony Pictures, which distributed the original 2011 Priest, is not developing a second movie. The trailer and the plot synopsis that was posted to Facebook are purely a fabrication, partly created with the world wide web’s most pernicious new annoyance: Generative AI.
Tom Hardy has proven himself a solid box office draw, and so an action-packed monter hunter flick starring the 47-year-old actor is an enticing proposition to general audiences. Many feel that he was the strongest element of the Venom trilogy (another Sony IP). Although Priest 2 is unlikely to ever be produced, especially this long after the original, Hardy could be a factor in getting butts in seats.
Stranger things have happened in Hollywood, but the Priest property was, in all probability, an open and shut case. Fans should count the 2011 movie as a one-and-done outing with regard to any big-screen adaptation of the Korean graphic novel.
Priest is available to purchase wherever movies are sold.
