Universal Photography
Christmas is about to be violent again. I haven’t officially tried violent Night 2. A release date has been set, the director is locked, and David Harbor is set to wear a red suit for another round of holiday slaughter.
Universal has set a US release date for December 4th, 2026, and has secured the sequel on the thick of the holiday movie season.
The returning team was locked up
As Hollywood reporters reported, director Tommy Wilcola (Dead Snow, what happened Monday) has returned to helm the sequel. Screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller wrote their first film, but are back on scripting missions.
Production is currently scheduled to begin in September and filming will take place in Winnipeg, Canada.
The first film brought a bloody holiday hit
The original violent night, released in 2022, provided a bloody, dark comedy spin in the Christmas genre. The story stumbles upon the violent hostage situation on Christmas Eve, following Harbor’s disillusioned, violently interfering Santa Claus. They are forced to rescue a wealthy family, including a young girl played by Leah Brady. Santa portrays a brutal past as the ancient Viking warrior Nicomun the Red to send a group of armed criminals led by John Legoisamo’s Scrooge.
The film has won strong word-of-mouth reviews, winning US$76 million worldwide with a reported US$20 million budget and US$76 million on a US$220 million budget. It also performed decently in both critics and audiences, landing a rotten tomato critic score of 74% and an audience score of 88%.
The sequel expands the world – and turmoil
Though the plot details for Violent Night 2 are barely wrapped, the filmmakers offer some early bullying about where the sequel goes. Speaking to Collider in December 2024, authors Pat Casey and Josh Miller (the duo who also wrote the Sonic The Hedgeog film) revealed that this new chapter could potentially expand on scale beyond the single location action of the first film.
“The violent night movie isn’t on a big budget as the Sonic movie, but I want this to feel bigger than the first one,” Miller explained. “And I don’t want Santa to be locked up in the mansion again.”
Casey added that fans can expect many of Santa’s backstory to be explored this time. “We know people are hungry for many of his Viking backstory, and David (Minner) is particularly excited about that.” He also hears that Santa from Harbor might have to devour that coat.
Wirkola says that ideas cut from the first film due to budget (Arctic, Mrs. Klaus, visits to Santa’s elves could eventually be incorporated into the sequel. Speaking to a Hollywood reporter in 2022, he said, “The Arctic is invisible. Mrs. Klaus is invisible. The elves are invisible. There were also some ideas I loved in the script, but I couldn’t afford to shoot them so I had to cut them.”
Production set for the second half of 2025
With the cast still together and the scripts in place, Universal is targeting the start of production in September as the team returns to Winnipeg to realize the next chapter of Holiday Chaos.
For now, you can mark that calendar. On December 4th, 2026, Violent Night 2 will open at US Cinema.
Let’s take a look back at the trailer for the first film.
