Although nobody expected a sequel to 'Elf', and it's doubtful it would have had the same impact, you can't help but wonder what might have been.
After all, Buddy The Elf is one of Will Ferrell's signature roles, and the very premise of it is so finely tuned to his performance that you couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. Not only that, Jon Favreau's understated direction just made some of the humour that much more potent.
It's sad, then, to think that the two of them just didn't get on - and that's why a sequel never happened. That's according to James Caan, per a recent interview picked up by TheWrap.
"We were gonna do it and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I finally got a franchise movie, I could make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do.’ And the director and Will didn’t get along very well," Caan explained. "So, Will wanted to do it, he didn’t want the director, and he had it in his contract, it was one of those things."
Given how successful 'Elf' was, and how it's now become a Christmas classic, you'd have to imagine that a sequel wouldn't have worked without either Will Ferrell and Jon Favreau. Not only that, but it's a shame that they just didn't get on when they made something that nearly everybody loves.
Maybe one of them was just a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.
