Artemis Fowl ending explained – will there be a sequel?

Artemis Fowl ending explained

The film concludes with the Aculos device back in the hands of the fairy LEP, Artemis’ father (Colin Farrell) returned to Fowl manor and Holly’s (Lara McDonnell) father redeemed posthumously, with the schemes of evil pixie Opal Koboi foiled.

Following this, Artemis contacts Opal with a warning that may hint at a planned follow-up, with the child genius telling her “Now, we’re coming for you.”

“You think you can beat me?” she replies. “You have no idea of the world you’ve just entered, boy. Who do you think you are?”

“I’m Artemis Fowl – and I’m a criminal mastermind,” he says.

However, this isn’t the final bit of information in the film. At the very end Artemis, Holly and Artemis senior spring kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch (Josh Gad) from a human prison, spiriting him away in a helicopter with a suggestion that they’ll soon work together again.

“Are you ready to get back to work?” Artemis asks.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Mulch replied.

“We have some unfinished business,” concludes Artemis, before the team fly away.

Altogether, this suggests hints of a sequel where Artemis, his father, Butler (Nonso Anozie), Holly and Mulch take their revenge on Opal Koboi, possibly drawing in elements of future books in the Artemis Fowl series.

And in a new interview, director Kenneth Branagh suggested that a future film could see a more book-accurate, darker Artemis.

“I was less interested in presenting the story from the get-go, of a character who was marooned in a privileged life,” he told /Film.

“I wanted us to find the humanity inside the character, before going on a journey which might be the opposite to the books but sort of integral in the sense of what I was looking for, which was a journey that maybe took our Artemis which he arrives at the end of the movie ready to go to the dark side.

“So we see him acquire those characteristics, and it seems to me that that is a way of potentially introducing a much wider audience who didn’t know the books to the characters so that the great landscape that Eoin has in the rest of the books, we can hopefully, perhaps, go through, but traveling in the different direction.”

Artemis Fowl 2: Is a sequel in the works?

Given that the film has received almost universally negative reviews (click here to read our own Artemis Fowl review) it may seem unlikely that we’re in for another adaptation of Artemis Fowl any time soon.

However, if Disney+ feel like the film attracted enough interest and subscribers to their platform, they may feel that the franchise would be worth returning to. Unlike cinema releases, this film isn't dependent on a big box office return.

And director Kenneth Branagh has given a few ideas of how the story could be developed, hoping to return to the well of Eoin Colfer’s books for future storylines.

"For my money, any returning future films would be, [after] I hope a noisy response from people who like the films — I would imagine I or future filmmakers would listen to that — you’ve got another seven books of terrific material from Eoin Colfer."

"My own instinct would be to keep going back to the books [where] there are some amazing stories. And I think now that the general territory has been laid, out the world’s your oyster.

"But the oyster would be Eoin Colfer’s. I personally don’t feel you need to be making up new stuff unnecessarily, but that’s all. In the wake of success, that would be a nice problem to have."

Artemis Fowl is streaming now on Disney+ – check out what else is on with our TV Guide