Why The Godfather 4 Never Happened (& Probably Never Will)

Francis Ford Coppola began developing The Godfather Part IV in the late ‘90s, but it ended up getting scrapped — and there’s a good chance it’ll never get produced. In 1972, The Godfather became the highest-grossing movie ever made, was hailed as one of the greatest films of all time, and made Coppola a household name. In 1974, The Godfather Part II was met with an equal amount of critical acclaim and quickly became the go-to example of a sequel that outdid its predecessor. In 1990, The Godfather Part III struggled to replicate that success.

Although it was still nominated for Best Picture, The Godfather Part III was considered a massive step down from its predecessors. It wasn’t as big of a box office hit as expected and it was met with mixed reviews. The threequel was criticized for its plot, Sofia Coppola’s performance as Mary Corleone, and for being an unnecessary addition to a perfect story. After that harsh reception, it might sound like a dangerous idea to pursue The Godfather Part IV. But Coppola did begin work on a fourth film before eventually shelving the project.

Plans For The Godfather 4 Ended After Mario Puzo's Death

Coppola Had Been Developing The Sequel With Original Godfather Author Mario Puzo

After the mixed reception to The Godfather Part III, Coppola hoped to redeem the franchise with The Godfather Part IV. He began developing ideas for the story with Mario Puzo, the author of the original novel that The Godfather was based on. Coppola and Puzo had co-written the first three films and started discussing a fourth. However, The Godfather Part IV fell apart when Puzo passed away in 1999. When Puzo passed away, he and Coppola had developed a loose outline for the fourth film, but Puzo died before they were able to write a full screenplay.

Francis Ford Coppola Considers The Godfather's Story Complete

"In My Mind There Is Only 1 Film Known As The Godfather"

Although Coppola is back from semi-retirement and eager to keep making films, it’s unlikely that he’ll ever return to The Godfather Part IV. When he was asked about going back to The Godfather Part IV, Coppola wrote on social media, “In my mind there is only 1 film known as The Godfather (Parts I and II) and an epilogue or ‘coda’ The Death of Michael Corleone.” Coppola considers The Godfather saga to be complete. The first two films tell The Godfather story in its entirety, and the third one caps it off with a conclusive epilogue.

The first two films tell The Godfather story in its entirety, and the third one caps it off with a conclusive epilogue.

After the box office failure of Megalopolis, a fourth Godfather film is one of the few Coppola projects that Hollywood might actually jump at the chance to finance. But the filmmaker has no interest in revisiting the Corleone saga and has a couple of very different future projects lined up instead. Coppola has teased his post-Megalopolis projects as “another roll of the dice” similar to his self-financed sci-fi epic. There’s a traditional movie, which he plans to shoot in England, and Distant Vision, a more unconventional project chronicling three generations of an Italian American family.

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Since Coppola initially developed the project with Puzo, it might feel wrong to complete it without him. Coppola has co-written all three Godfather movies with Puzo, and the whole franchise is built on Puzo’s source material, so it wouldn’t sit right to make a new Godfather film without any involvement from Puzo. Coppola could build on the material he developed with Puzo before his death, but that material was still in the early development stages when Puzo passed away, so it was a far cry from a finished script.

What The Godfather 4's Story Would've Been About

Leonardo DiCaprio Would've Starred As Young Sonny Corleone

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The Godfather Part IV was first announced in 1999 (via The Guardian). It would’ve followed another half sequel, half prequel storyline like The Godfather Part II. Rather than contrasting Vito’s rise to power with Michael’s moral downfall, it would’ve followed the concurrent journeys of a different father and son within the Corleone clan. Andy García would reprise his role from The Godfather Part III as Vincent Corleone in the sequel story, which would see him taking over the family business during an intense gang war in the 1980s, still haunted by the death of his cousin Mary.

Andy García would reprise his role from The Godfather Part III as Vincent Corleone in the sequel story, which would see him taking over the family business during an intense gang war in the 1980s, still haunted by the death of his cousin Mary.

In The Godfather Part IV’s prequel story, Leonardo DiCaprio would play a younger version of Vincent’s father Sonny, the hotheaded Corleone originally played by James Caan. The story of how Sonny earned the family’s power and respect in the 1930s would’ve been juxtaposed with the story of how his son Vincent lost their power and respect in the ‘80s. Puzo’s section of the unproduced sequel, following the Corleone family’s rise to power in the early ‘30s, was eventually repurposed as a novel. The novel was written by Edward Falco and got published in 2012 under the title The Family Corleone.

Source: The Guardian