The history of 'The Next Chapter'
The producers have basically said that it took a number of years to reacquire the rights to the book and to make a sequel. Don't forget that Michael Ende was displeased with the first one. The loss of years meant that the original actors were too old and that they had no option other than to recast. However Noah Hathaway has since said that this was not true. A sequel was originally planned to commence filming about a year or so after the first movie came out. However he fell out with the producers after he believed they screwed him on his contract and he had no intention of reprising the role for them.