U2's The Edge wrote a sequel to Elf.

The 2003 festive classic starred Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human who had grown up among Santa's elves before heading to New York City to connect with his biological father, and actor Andy Richter, who appeared briefly in the film and co-wrote the new book Elf Unwrapped: Behind the Scenes of a Modern Christmas Classic, has shared the "weirdest story" about how producer Shauna Robertson was alerted to the fact the U2 guitarist had written a follow-up film.

Speaking on Obsessed: The Podcast, Andy said: "Somebody reached out to her and said, 'The Edge from U2 has written a sequel to Elf, and he wants to talk to you about it.'

"It's the weirdest story, but apparently it was fully written. Somewhere in the world there is an Edge-penned Elf 2 out there… I would love for that to make the light of day.

"It never happened. It's one of those things where she's like, 'All right, sure, I'll meet him,' and then it just petered out and never happened."

As well as The Edge, Andy revealed The Hangover Part II writer Scot Armstrong - who he noted had helped write Elf but wasn't credited for procedural reasons - had penned a sequel script of his own, which would have followed "the evil South Pole elves kidnapping Santa or something like that."

However, Andy doesn't think Jon Favreau's holiday favourite needs a sequel at this point because it runs the risk of "tarnishing" the original.

He said: "I'm on the side of 'Let it stand.'

"Just let Elf be Elf. You don't have to use every part of the animal.

"Now that time has passed, the movie has become so special that I think that people, rightfully so, are loath to mess with it because we all can think of movies that have been tarnished by their sequels. And this is so special and so perfect and so beloved… Why risk it?"

Lead star Will previously revealed he had rejected the idea of returning for an Elf sequel.

After the movie became a major critical and commercial success, grossing $228.9 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $33 million, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema offered him $29 million to return.

In 2021, he explained to The Hollywood Reporter: "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would've been, like, 'Oh no, it's not good. I just couldn't turn down that much money.'"

But the Step Brothers actor found he just couldn't sign on to a film he didn't have his heart in.

He added: "I thought, 'Can I actually say those words? I don't think I can, so I guess I can't do the movie.'"