"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fight."
Universal Pictures has released the first trailer and poster for Violent Night 2, which once again finds David Harbour's badass Santa Claus facing off against a gang of ruthless criminals.
This time, Santa will be forced to do battle without his powers after finding himself on the naughty list ("maybe I killed too many people"), but he will also have an equalizer in the form of his equally formidable wife, Mrs. Claus (Kristen Bell).
"In the first one, we talked a lot about Mrs. Claus. We never obviously saw her so we did feel like we had to introduce her in this film," director Tommy Wirkola tells CBR. "We wanted to give her not just a tiny cameo, but really make her matter in the plot and the story and also his backstory and how it ties into how everything resolves. So she does play a big part in it."
"And part of that fun was to one, see her and who she is and how she is a fight but also see their dynamic together. And David and Kristen, they knew each other from way back, which I didn't know, and they're old friends and they also had great chemistry on set and we really lean into that and the humor and the heart that they had in between themselves. Her backstory is as interesting as Santa's and we get a flavor of that also in the film and how it all kind of ended up."
If you're nice, you get presents from the Big Guy. If you're naughty, you get justice. In 2022's bare-knuckle holiday sensation, Violent Night, an embittered Santa, armed with lethal combat skills, took out a team of mercenaries to rescue a girl & her family. Now, not-so-jolly Saint Nick suits up again to take on a ruthless gangster (Jared Harris) terrorizing the merchants of the Silver Bell Mall. But when Santa forgets the true meaning of Christmas, he finds himself in the heart of a lively mall community in desperate need of his help. Sapped of his magic, he’ll need another way to take on the goons threatening the mall, and time is running out. Santa has to rediscover his faith in goodness & call in some last-minute reinforcements from the one person no baddie wants to tangle with: Mrs. Claus (Kristen Bell).
Violent Night 2 is again directed by Norwegian filmmaker Tommy Wirkola (Kill Buljo: The Movie, Dead Snow, Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, What Happened to Monday, The Trip) and written by Pat Casey & Josh Miller. Produced by Kelly McCormick and David Leitch. Universal will release the sequel in theaters nationwide starting December 4th.