Joe Pantoliano And Jared Harris Crash Into Violent Night 2 With David Harbour

Violent Night 2 just picked up two ringers, and the cast is starting to look stacked in a fun, slightly chaotic way. Fans of the first film can expect more twisted Christmas carnage, only bigger and nastier this time around.

Two new names under the tree

Joe Pantoliano (Bad Boys for Life) and Jared Harris (House of Dynamite) are set to join David Harbour in the sequel. No word yet on who they’re playing, but both of them tend to make every scene a little sharper, so that’s a win.

This comes only a week after Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) were revealed as new additions too. Momentum: not a problem here.

Who’s making it

Tommy Wirkola is back in the director’s chair, with a script by returning writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller. If you remember, those two also wrote the Sonic movies, and they’ve been pretty open about wanting to scale this sequel up without turning it into a Sonic-sized spend-fest. Inside baseball, sure, but it tells you the ambition level.

"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." Miller also teased the sequel will bring "a little Western influence" after the first one "lived in a Die Hard space."

Casey has been joking-but-also-not about leaning further into Santa’s Viking backstory, promising that Santa will take his shirt off even more this time, which David Harbour is apparently very into. Translation: expect more myth, more bruises, fewer layers.

Quick refresher

The first Violent Night was a Christmas Eve siege movie: a crew of mercenaries storms a rich family’s estate, takes hostages, and accidentally runs into Santa Claus, who proceeds to wreck their plans and a whole lot of skulls.

Mrs. Claus watch

It’s still early, but there’s been a steady drumbeat about bringing Mrs. Claus into the action. Names tossed around include Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace. Harbour’s dream pick is Theron — he praised her Atomic Blonde fight work — but he also hedged that whoever lands it, if it happens, will be great.

Where things stand

• Cast so far: David Harbour, Joe Pantoliano, Jared Harris, Daniela Melchior, Kristen Bell
• Director: Tommy Wirkola (returning)
• Writers: Pat Casey and Josh Miller (returning)
• Vibe shift: bigger than the first, less Die Hard, a touch of Western
• Open questions: roles for Pantoliano/Harris, and whether Mrs. Claus joins the fray