A Violent Night Sequel is Being Planned

Movies

That was fast. Violent Night, the Christmas action movie that finds Santa Claus fighting a team of mercenaries to save a captured family, is on track to get a sequel. The film is projected to do pretty well for itself this weekend, tracking for an $8-13 million haul and coming in second to Wakanda Forever. That may not sound like much, but for a movie with no stars and no built-in audience that only cost $20 million to make, it’s not bad. (And it ended up beating Black Panther’s Sidekicks on Friday!) Anticipating a nice profit, Violent Night producer Kelly McCormick – who also teased a sequel to another action film she produced, Nobody – told Collider that she and the rest of the crew are planning to make another Santa action-fest.

“We’re working on a lot of originals right now. We are also working on a ‘Nobody 2.’ We’re hoping to start working on a ‘Violent Night 2,’ if everything goes well the next few weeks. We have a tendency to just keep our heads down and focus on what’s in front of us, or near. So yeah, that’s kind of it. We’re in it. We still have two and a half months of work to do on this one.”

I’m kind of torn on this one. I adored Violent Night and am pleased it’s on track to be successful because it deserves it. But I don’t think it lends itself to a sequel as well as Nobody does. This feels like a one-time-only adventure for Santa, an extraordinary situation that simply never came up before in his thousand-plus years of delivering Christmas presents. Is he now going to have to go to war with an army of bad guys every other year? I’m a believer in suspending disbelief, and we’re talking about a movie where Santa Claus goes John McClane on terrorists. But there’s so much heart to this movie, such good character work, and it feels like an experience that changes Santa as a man and as a symbol (or changes him back, as the case may be). Doing it again would almost certainly detract from that.

However, since it’s probably going to happen, I’d like them to do something a little different. First of all, the family from this movie shouldn’t come back. Again, this was a singular experience that changed everyone involved forever; leave that be. And I don’t really want Santa to stumble upon yet another hostage situation that he has to defuse with deadly force. This time, I’d like a version of The Night the Reindeer Died from Scrooged; take the action to the North Pole, where the bad guys hit Santa’s workshop, and he’s got to protect his own turf – as well as the elves and Mrs. Claus – from danger. Imagine fights in the toy factory, the reindeer stable, a bakery, and other North Pole locations, with Santa turning the jolly Christmas trappings into lethal weapons. If it has to be done, get creative with the concept.

Have you seen Violent Night? What do you want the sequel to look like? Is the Easter Bunny going to be the next villain? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned to Geeks + Gamers for more Christmas death-dealing!