Revenge of the Titans: Whatever Happened to the Third Entry in the Clash of the Titans Franchise?

In the words of that immortal bearded dude living high up on Mount Olympus: "Release the Kraken!"

With Percy Jackson and the Olympians back in the pop culture conversation thanks to the critically-acclaimed series adaptation, Warner Bros. may want to consider revisiting its... of the Titans franchise, which stalled out after just two blockbuster entries (both will be airing on SYFY this weekend if). Helmed by future Fast X director Louis Leterrier, 2010's Clash of the Titans (a star-studded and VFX-forward remake of the 1981 film of the same name) was an immensely enjoyable hodgepodge of Greek mythology.

Hot off his breakout role as Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar, Sam Worthington stepped into the role of Perseus, the monster-battling demigod son of Zeus. The lead Olympian was portrayed by Liam Neeson, who famously reunited with Ralph Fiennes (tackling the devious lord of the Underworld, Hades) for the first time since Schindler's List nearly two decades beforehand.

Clash proved to be a bona fide box office hit, netting close to half a billion dollars worldwide against a budget of $125 million. The 2012 sequel, Wrath of the Titans (directed by Battle: Los Angeles alum Jonathan Liebesman) wasn't as lucky, only grossing $301 million globally against an even pricier budget of $150 million. As a result, plans for a third movie (purportedly titled Revenge of the Titans) were scrapped.

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What Happened to the Third Clash of the Titans Movie?

"It's one of those situations where we've seen it a million times; a movie will kind of float away and then come back when it's supposed to come back," Basil Iwanyk explained during a 2013 interview with IGN when the outlet visited the set of the producer's latest project at the time: a little action flick called John Wick (you might have heard of it in the years since). "You'd think that there was three-and-a-half, four years of nonstop Clash of the Titans activity, and I think it is, 'Okay, what's the new idea? How do you make it fresh?' You know, a lot of movies have come out in that world, including Immortals and 300. So there will be a time and place where someone will come up with a great idea for it and how to make it feel different and fresh from the previous ones. Then we'll hopefully move forward on that."

While this is just pure speculation, one could theorize that Revenge of the Titans entered an indefinite holding pattern because Iwanyk was also producing Alex Proyas's Clash-adjacent Gods of Egypt (another celebrity-filled riff on the divine beliefs of an ancient culture), and didn't want any direct competition between the two.

"It's a lot more of an adventure movie, like The Thief of Bagdad, those old movies," he teased to IGN. "Clash was a very serious movie. Gods of Egypt, I think is a lot more Raiders and Pirates than it is those movies."

Any hopes of turning that into a major mythological franchise, however, were dashed when the film bombed with critics and at the box office in 2016.

Want to pay tribute to the gods of Olympus? Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans will air on SYFY this Saturday (March 30) and Sunday (March 31). Click here for complete scheduling details!