According to Don Cheadle, there's not going to be an Ocean's 14.

But last time I checked, the franchise was called Ocean's 11, not Cheadle's 11. And the man in charge of the gang, Danny Ocean himself (aka George Clooney) hasn't publicly announced any retirement from the heist business.

So what if Don Cheadle has moved on from stealing money from casinos to stealing parts from Terrence Howard? They don't need him. This franchise has so many stars, we barely even noticed when Julia Roberts sat the last one out! (Sadly, it would be impossible to reunite the entire original cast anyway, now that Bernie Mac has passed away).

But the dissolution of Ocean's gang still doesn't need to mean the end of the series. Cheadle's words may seem to rule out the idea of an Ocean's 14, but what about an Ocean's 10?

Danny Ocean and most of his cohorts were already seasoned criminals by the time they broke into the Bellagio vault in Ocean's 11. If you remember, the first movie opened with Danny being released from prison. It could be a lot of fun to see how he ended up there in the first place, how he won (and lost) the heart of Tess, and how he became the smooth criminal we all grew to love in the movies.

Rusty (Brad Pitt) would have to factor heavily into the plot to help keep the franchise recognizable, as the little backstory we were given in the first film indicated their friendship/partnership went ways back. It would also be fun to see their earlier interactions with the men who would later form their gang. We could get a peek at The Amazing Yen (Shaobo Qin) in his early days as a circus performer. The scripts of the first three films were so sly (or at least 11 and 13 were), I'm sure the writers could find clever and surprising ways to work all of the major characters in, at least for cameos.

The biggest difficulty an Ocean's prequel would face would have to be the casting. This franchise was built entirely on the star power of Clooney, Pitt, Roberts, etc. Younger actors would have to be chosen to play Danny and Rusty, and it would be hard for any actor not to get intimidated by the prospect of filling the shoes of either of these two former Sexiest Man Alive title-holders. There are also many fans out there who might not even want to see an Ocean's movie without Clooney and co.

That's why I suggest keeping Clooney and Pitt around, but not as Danny and Rusty. I'd love to see Clooney and Pitt cast as younger versions of the two elder statesman of the Ocean's gang, Reuben (Elliott Gould) and Saul (Carl Reiner). The Ocean's cast loves nothing better than an in-joke (the "Tess looks just like Julia Roberts!" gag was one of the few redeeming moments of Ocean's 12), and I bet Clooney and Pitt would have a blast mentoring "themselves" in the ways of casino crime.

Prequels and origin stories often prove risky for beloved movie franchises (hello, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace!). But when you're starting out with source material as silly and lighthearted as the Ocean's films, I think it's a safe bet to assume there's still some fun left to be had.

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