MOVIE NEWS – Clint Eastwood playfully responded to whether he’d make “Dirty Harry 6”: “He’s retired and chases bad guys with his walker.” The Hollywood legend added: “The films I’m interested in now take me to new places.”

Throughout his career, Clint Eastwood has delivered many memorable performances, but one character left a deeper mark than the rest: Harry Callahan, the San Francisco cop he played in five films — Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool. Many have wondered why a sixth installment never happened, and there are several reasons.

The first and most significant is that The Dead Pool was the least successful film in the series — partly because it was also the most expensive, with a $30 million budget — and it grossed far less than Sudden Impact had just five years earlier. It seemed audiences had lost interest in the character.

It didn’t help that in 1990, Eastwood released The Rookie, a buddy movie with certain similarities to the “Dirty Harry” saga, which flopped at the box office. While nostalgia for the legendary character grew over time, no return ever materialized.

The Role Fans Loved Most

In the 21st century, Eastwood recalled in the Los Angeles Times: “Of all the films you make, of all the roles you play, there are some that people remember fondly. Harry is the one I hear people talking about the most on the street.” Some fans even asked him to insult them as Harry would: “At first, I’d tell these kids, ‘That’s just a movie, dude.’ After a while, I’d just give it to them. It made everyone happy. Sometimes even me. Sometimes I even meant it…”

Of course, the actor knew that bringing back the character was nearly impossible, even joking about it: “Harry is retired. He’s out in a stream, fly fishing. He gets tired of using the rod, and BOOM! Or Harry is retired and chases bad guys with his walker. Maybe he owns a tavern. Some guys come in and don’t pay the bill, so Harry looks under the bar: ‘Hey guys, the next drink’s on me!’”

Make My Day

However, he acknowledged there was only one thing that would make him consider returning: “I get asked all the time. I guess if there was a really good script or something, but it’s hard enough finding good scripts, let alone one that you have to adapt to fit into a franchise.” Ultimately, he settled the matter by noting: “The films that interest me now take me to new places.”

Source: espinof