Why did Iko Uwais. Evans had traveled to Indonesia to film a documentary about the martial art Silat, and after seeing Uwais' talent and screen presence, cast him as the heroic wanderer Yuda in Merantau. It was with 2012's The Raid that Evans and Uwais really shook the action world up.
Following a police raid of a Jakarta apartment complex filled with killers and psychopaths, The Raid combined the Silat-based action scenes of Merantau with the tone of a survival horror game and became an instant action classic. Its 2014 sequel The Raid 2 continued to turn the volume up with a more complex crime family plot and even wilder action. Though Evans conceived of The Raid franchise as a trilogy, The Raid 3 ultimately never happened, with a combination of factors explaining why.
Evans had already wanted to take a break from action moviemaking in the interim between The Raid 2 and The Raid 3, with his next film being the 2018 Netflix horror Apostle. A combination of the ending of The Raid 2 and Evans' return to the UK from Indonesia led to him moving on from The Raid 3. Evans explained in a 2016 interview with Impact Online (via AICN), "Whether it was a conscious decision or not, moving back to UK felt like a closing chapter on that franchise - we ended the story pretty neatly (I feel) in Part 2." Evans also reiterated this point while promoting Apostle, stating in an interview with Slash Film, "What we did with The Raid 2, we kinda close that off nicely, so it didn’t really appeal to me to jump back into that world again".
Evans has also stated Uwais' character The Raid remains in development, though a parting of ways between rights owners XYZ Films from director Joe Carnahan and star Frank Grillo now makes it an unofficial one on the latter pair's part titled Zeno.
Though The Raid 3 never happened, both Evans and Uwais have gone on to great careers, with Evans directing the aforementioned Apostle and creating TV series Wu Assassins and its movie sequel, Fistful of Vengeance. While the world may never actually see The Raid 3, enough is still known about it to ponder what it could've been.
