Violent Night 2’s Expanded Santa Claus Mythology Teased By Writers: “We Know People Are Hungry For More”

With the first movie having offered glimpses of a new take on the holiday icon, writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller tease how Violent Night 2 will expand on their Santa Claus mythology. The 2022 action-comedy starred David Harbour as Santa, disillusioned by increasingly greedy children and now often drunk, as he finds himself trapped in a mansion as a group of mercenaries takes a rich family hostage, requiring him to step up and fight. Produced by John Wick alum David Leitch, development on Violent Night 2 has swirled for the past two years, gaining steam in the past few months.

During a recent interview with Collider to discuss their work on Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Casey and Miller were asked for any insight they could share on Violent Night 2. After humorously comparing the budgets of the Christmas comedy to the Sonic franchise, the duo did tease that the Harbour-led sequel will "feel bigger than the first one" and feature more information on his "Viking backstory". Check out the rest of what they shared below:

Josh Miller: The Violent Night movies are not as big budget as the Sonic movies, but we still want this one to feel bigger than the first one. And you don't want Santa just trapped in a mansion again.

Pat Casey: Santa’s gonna take his shirt off even more in this one. We know what the people want. We know people are hungry for more of his Viking backstory. David is especially excited about that stuff.

What This Means For Violent Night 2

They May Be Taking A Page Out Of Another Franchise's Playbook

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Ever since the release of the first movie, the creative team have shared their thoughts on how to expand the Santa Claus mythology for Violent Night 2. Both Harbour and director Tommy Wirkola have confirmed talks about including Mrs. Claus in the sequel, with the former in particular expressing his interest in seeing Charlize Theron in the role, while the latter has teased everything from the North Pole to showing Santa's elves. Considering the first movie hinted at a more complicated relationship between Santa and Mrs. Claus, her involvement seems a likely element to come from the sequel.

Arguably, one of the more intriguing teases from Miller and Casey's newest comments is that Violent Night 2 will expand on Santa's Viking backstory. As the first movie revealed, Harbour's character was originally known as Nicomund the Red and that he was a ruthless warrior before he became Santa. However, the movie notably left out the rest of his origin story for how he became Santa, with frequent mentions of how he doesn't understand how his Christmas magic works.

Related Violent Night’s Post-Credits Scene & Sequel Tease Explained David Harbour's Violent Night movie does have a post-credits scene. Here's what happens and how it sets up a sequel for the brutal Santa Claus.

With the promise of the sequel gradually building out the world of its central character, it seems very possible Violent Night 2 could be taking a page out of the John Wick franchise's playbook. Where Keanu Reeves' first movie was a fairly straightforward tale of revenge, subsequent installments not only raised its scale, but also added in new thematic layers for every new element of the world built out. As such, revealing more of Santa's backstory and relationship with Mrs. Claus could see it progress in a similar epic fashion to the Leitch-produced movies.

Our Take On Miller & Casey's Violent Night 2 Tease

They Should Leave Some Things Unanswered

The tease of a deeper exploration of Santa's Viking backstory in Violent Night 2 does admittedly leave me feeling a little mixed. On the one hand, the idea of Santa being a blood-soaked warrior before becoming a hero to children is a humorous juxtaposition, and the possibility of seeing that transformation is enticing. However, part of the charm of the first movie was the hand-waving away of unanswered questions with "Christmas magic, I still don't understand how it works", and as such, it could run the risk of getting into convoluted territory.

That being said, there's still a lot to be excited about heading into the sequel. Casey and Miller recently confirmed to ScreenRant that Violent Night 2's script is currently being written and is quite far along in the drafting process, they remain dedicated to making the action-comedy world of Santa Claus bigger, and their record-setting success with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 shows they've clearly got a handle on franchise storytelling.

Source: Collider