Earlier this summer, Doug Liman’s “The Instigators,” starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, proved to be a major streaming success over at Apple TV. At its peak, during the middle of August, it was the most watched movie or TV series in all of streaming.
“The Instigators,” co-written by Affleck, had an ex-con forced to work with a struggling father (Damon) to rob a corrupt politician’s earnings. The heist then goes terribly wrong, the two find themselves on the run, pursued by police and criminals. They convince Damon’s therapist (a very playful Hong Chau) to join in on their getaway through Boston.
There’s now word that Damon and Affleck are prepping an ‘Instigators’ sequel, with both in talks to return. Liman is also attached to direct the sequel. This isn’t at all surprising given the film’s ending, and the fact that it quickly became one of Apple TV+’s most watched films ever.
Damon tells Deadline that he couldn’t have been happier about the way things turned out for the film, even if it went straight to streaming which was apparently the plan all along:
Casey and I were just talking about how great that whole rollout was, the way they handled the movie. They said that it was number one on all of the streaming, including the TV shows. So that’s wonderful; it just means that people are liking it as much as we liked making it. So yeah, that would be wonderful if that came to pass.
“The Instigators” was an entertaining heist-gone-wrong caper, one that I don’t believe deserved the negative reviews it received from critics. Damon and Affleck had great chemistry together and Liman, always the consummate pro, shot the action in effortless fashion.
The film also had this excellent supporting cast, including the likes of Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow and Ron Perlman.
In this same Deadline report, it is also confirmed that Liman will not be returning to direct the sequel to his other 2024 streaming mega-hit, “Road House,” which recently got greenlit by Amazon. If you remember, Liman and the streamer had this major public feud concerning the filmmaker’s desire to see the film released theatrically, which they refused to do. Liman insists that, unlike “The Instigators,” a straight to streaming rollout was never included in his contract with Amazon.