David Harbour’s Violent Night Already Getting A Sequel?
Violent Night, the bloody vengeful take on Santa Claus starring David Harbour, has not been out for a week yet and already talk is circulating about a potential sequel. Screenrant reports that producer Kelly McCromick is working on Nobody 2, a sequel to the Bob Odenkirk action-movie, but her team is looking to add Violent Night 2 to their workload “if everything goes well over the next few weeks.” Already on pace to be a moderate hit, Violent Night represents the sort of original IP that studios are looking to expand in the current era of multimedia franchises.
With a reported budget of $20 million, the David Harbour fun-filled Holiday film is already on pace to make Universal Pictures a tidy profit. The opening weekend gross of $13.3 million means that the movie full of Christmas spirit is on the cusp of profitability. Excellent word of mouth and better than expected critical reviews give hope that the bloody frolic will continue to find an audience closer to Christmas.
Further supporting the argument for a sequel, is that of the classic Christmas mythos, there is still a lot of territory to explore. Violent Night never shows the North Pole, Mrs. Clause, or the elves that help run Santa’s Workshop in-between reading dentistry textbooks. David Harbour’s Santa is shown to be a fairly stereotypical depiction of St. Nick, until it is up to him to rescue a sweet little girl that still believes in Christmas.
Trudy, played by Leah Brady, helps balance out Violent Night from just becoming another film about one man up against an army of terrorists over Christmas. Terrorized by John Leguizamo’s critically praised terrorist, Trudy is also responsible for the crowd pleasing sequence, bringing to bloody life the classic question “What if the traps in Home Alone were lethal?” David Harbour, a veteran of Stranger Things, is used to performing with child stars, having spent the past few years appearing alongside Millie Bobby Brown.
Violent Night represents the first major starring role for David Harbour, following the disappointing Hellboy adaptation in 2019. With Stranger Things approaching the end of the line, the veteran actor is looking for new roles and new challenges. Yet the star does run the risk of being typecast as grizzled, bearded superhero characters if he does find himself at the head of a new Santa franchise.
David Harbour is also part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared as Alexei, the Red Guardian in Black Widow. Soon fans will get to see the Russian supersoldier in action again, alongside his adopted daughter, Yelena Belova played by Florence Pugh, in Marvel’s Thunderbolts. A villainous team-up movie, Thunderbolts is Marvel’s answer to Suicide Squad, another superhero film that Harbour appeared in, though only as a small bit role.
The next David Harbour project will be Gran Turismo, the Neil Blomkamp movie based on the hit PlaySation gaming franchise. The fifth and final season of Stranger Things, bringing an end to his role as small-town sheriff Jim Hopper, currently has no release date, though the actor thinks it will air in 2024.
