{"id":558941,"date":"2026-08-04T18:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558941\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:10:08","slug":"the-violent-night-2-trailer-adds-mrs-claus-to-its-gory-christmas-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558941\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Violent Night 2’ Trailer Adds Mrs. Claus to Its Gory Christmas Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first Violent Night<\/a> saw Santa Claus kicking ass to save a family. For its sequel, he\u2019ll have to save himself, and he\u2019ll do so in a place that is truly synonymous with modern Christmas: a shopping mall.<\/p>\n

Four years after we got the first Die Hard-inspired<\/a> Santa Claus film starring David Harbour,<\/a> Santa is back. This time, though, he\u2019s dealing with the repercussions of that previous, ahem, \u201cviolent night.\u201d Somehow, Santa himself has been put on the Naughty list and will now be forced to figure out the meaning of Christmas at a local mall. There, he\u2019ll have to take down goons led by an evil gangster (Jared Harris) along with the help of his wife, Mrs. Claus (Kristen Bell). No, we aren\u2019t quite sure how that all fits together either. But, for now, here\u2019s the trailer for Violent Night 2.<\/p>\n

We loved the first Violent Night, and this certainly looks like a worthy follow-up. And yet, we have questions. Doesn\u2019t Santa control the Naughty and Nice lists? Did someone hack him? Also, why are we at this mall, and why does Jared Harris\u2019 character want to kill Santa in this mall? Clearly, these are all questions the film will answer, but the trailer is more than a little confusing from a narrative standpoint.<\/p>\n

And yet, that probably won\u2019t matter. Violent Night 2 looks like it will deliver many, many Christmas-themed kills and lots of action, which is basically all we want. We just hope that it eventually gets back to that heartwarming, spirit of Christmas vibe that makes films like this live forever.<\/p>\n

In addition to Harbour, Bell and Harris, Violent Night 2 co-stars Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix, The Sopranos), Daniela Melchior (Fast X, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Andrew Bachelor (Greenland, The Walking Dead), and, yes, that\u2019s AEW professional wrestler MJF in there too. It\u2019s once again directed by Tommy Wirkola and opens December 4.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first Violent Night saw Santa Claus kicking ass to save a family. For its sequel, he\u2019ll have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[76381,156,409,111,139,69,198438],"class_list":["post-558941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-david-harbour","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-violent-night-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}