Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, a sequel to the original 2018 Lionsgate film, changes things up for the series by making Gerard Butler's leading cop, Nick, break bad and join the criminals.
The first film followed Nick as he tried to stop a group of thieves, which he was almost successful in doing––but in the end, he was duped by O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s Donnie. Now, Pantera brings the two back together in a whole new way: as reluctant co-workers.
The Direct was able to sit down with Pantera star Gerard Butler and director Christian Gudegast to talk all about how the sequel is upping the ante.
Gerard Butler on Nick Breaking Bad in Den of Thieves 2
"He's Like a Bear With a Sore Paw..."
- The Direct: " It definitely looks like Nick is Breaking Bad. Why does he make that choice?"
Gerard Butler: Well, Nick, I think, used to be the guy who has a killer instinct. He's very good at taking down the bad guys, and he's good at winning. He only really knows that. At the end of the last movie, he thought, I'm screwed, and that guy's good. So it kind of washed him out, broke him up, but it also brought him back to life, in a way...
... And he doesn't feel supported by the cops. He's divorced. Life has not been so great. But he has Donnie, and Donnie is something to aim for. So, he's like a bear with a sore paw that leads to all these great opportunities with the movie and the heist.
- The Direct: "How did that, you know, that big shift affect your own experience filling the sequel compared to the first one?"
Butler: I think it made it a lot more––I think the ante on this movie, in every way, has been kind of turned up a notch, and definitely more fun... It's got that kind of subversive buddy cop chemistry, and the fact that this guy, Nick, who you were behind, and you saw him as a very good cop, is now like, dude, I'm sick of my stuff. I'm sick of this. I want to join with you. And then what does that bring in?
It brings so many ideas of who these two people are as they get to know each other and at the trust level. What the hell is going to happen between them and getting to know each other, this innate brotherhood that they have? So there's so many colors, and I found that great to play, especially the humor. It's very funny, this movie, and it doesn't rely on the intensity and the grittiness. It's well-rounded, I'd say.
Director Describes the Buddy Movie Within Den of Thieves: Pantera
"It's Really Sort of a Love Story Between Nick and Donnie."
- The Direct: "What's something that you really wanted to achieve in this sequel that you just didn't achieve in the first one or just didn't even do in the first?"
Christian Gudegast: It's really a buddy movie. It's really sort of a love story between Nick and Donnie. These two Americans find themselves in a strange place overseas, and Nick obviously is going to switch sides for the film. So it's about that dynamic between a cop and a criminal.
So we're exploring that [and] how they're more similar than one would think, and that line between cop and criminal is almost at times invisible. Crime is almost like a symbiotic relationship, right? The cop and criminal [cannot] exist without the other, right? So it's really a buddy movie between the two of them.
- The Direct: "Their chemistry in that relationship is kind of the core of the movie. How drastically did that change throughout the process? What was the evolution of that? Did you have it, maybe at points where they were just more angry towards each other, or they got along easier? What was that balance like?
Gudegast: In terms of the performance, we put them in the first [film], and we kept them separate from each other. The two groups, the criminal group and the cop group, they only hung out with one another. They never did because we wanted to keep up that sort of rivalry between the two groups.
And this one, we did the opposite. We made sure that Donnie and Nick, O'Shea and [Gerard] basically lived next door to each other. They were neighbors for the whole time. So they really sort of developed that camaraderie between each other, naturally off-screen.
And then onscreen, it pays dividends, right? At first, there's obviously great distrust, and it's all about the evolution of that relationship, to see them sort of actually learn to love each other.
Gerard Butler on Working With Christian Gudegast to Create Sequel
"I Really Felt Like You've Been on an Epic Journey From Start to Finish."
- The Direct: "On the sequel, what would you say is the most unique moment you had on it throughout the whole process, compared to everything else you've done? This could be like on set afterward when it was all done before it even started,"
Gerard Butler: Well, this was before we started, and Christian and I were working on the script, and he came to Scotland, and we spent six or seven days, and we drove to different castles and cool hotels, and we hiked, and we talked in the car, and we thought up ideas, and we made it go deeper, and we kind of went into that the relationship between Donnie and Nick, and that was so much fun, because he's brilliant. I've worked with Christian a lot now, so we have a shorthand. But just that was a great moment.
- The Direct: "How involved were you in the story of this movie? It seems like you did a lot with him, yeah."
Butler: The main story was all Christian. He already had a fascination with the Panthers and the idea of blending our Den of Thieves with the Panthers. Like, what if Donnie then hooked up with these guys? Because they're an amazing crew of people, they're very mysterious, and they're very brilliant.
From that, he had the bones and the details, but what I was trying to bring was logic because I was a lawyer, right? So, I'm good with logic. Yeah, we got to be careful with that. That may be too much of this, and then also more personality between me and Donnie, that you could go deep and really get lost because there's so much to get out of that relationship.
By the time you finish this movie, I really feel like you've been on an epic journey from start to finish. But especially with these two guys, you just love what they go through together, and you never know. It's just constantly pulling the rug from underneath you as to where they're at.
Director Christian Gudegast on Building a New Team for Den of Thieves: Pantera
"Those Characters are Based on Actual People That I Met..."
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera focuses on a whole new group of criminals called the Panthers, who end up working alongside O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s Donnie and Gerard Butler's Nick to pull off a brand new heist.
- The Direct: "We briefly mentioned how there is a new team in this with the Panthers, right? Can you talk about developing that crew and those new personalities and how they kind of blend in with everyone else in the movie?"
Christian Gudegast: So all those characters are based on actual people that I met and know and hung out with in the Balkans and in Europe. It's a very culturally specific, closed-off world. So, in reality, to get to know them was fascinating.
It was just about casting the right people to sort of capture that energy that they have, and then bringing Donnie into that environment was interesting because he's an outsider. Still, he becomes one of them, and because he's so good at what he does, he gets the okay to join their group. Obviously, he proves himself worthy by the heist he pulls off in the beginning. But that was a really fascinating process.
The full spoiler-free section of The Direct's interviews for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera can be seen below:
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is set to land in theaters on January 10.
