I am totally not shocked. Keep the budget down?
After Ed, Holga, and Kira have retired to have a wonderful platonic found family (i.e. not in the film, or only in a brief flashback using footage from the first movie), Simon and Doric need new recruits (i.e. fresh-faced actors that don't rate much money but did good somewhere else, hopefully the Chicago improv-scene) for the new heist. They're still thieves who rob from the rich, give to the poor, and save the world only by accident, but when Xenk Yendar (Sir Only Appearing in Budget-friendly Flashbacks) sends word that he needs help in the Dalelands, we get a title card, and an adventure to boot. There will be dungeons. There will be dragons. Maybe even a Beholder or an Illithid (live action prosthetics, of course)!
That would work, and hopefully build up a franchise where we see the new D&D month every year to start Summer. That would not be the Worst Timeline.