Who’s badder than The Bad Guys? The Bad Girls. In the new chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed 2022 action-comedy hit about a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do “one last job” by an all-female squad of criminals. Based on the New York Times best-selling book series by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys 2 reunites the film’s all-star cast and filmmakers.
As the trailer premieres ahead of its anticipated release in 2025, Peter Gray spoke with director Pierre Perifel and producer Damon Ross about their return to this criminal world, collaborating with the cast in a deeper capacity, and what they personally think is the greatest sequel of all time.
With the success of the first film, is there an approach in building on that foundation, but keeping the story fresh at the same time?
Pierre Perifel: Of course, I don’t think you can really do a successful sequel if you don’t know how to honour the first one and build upon it. Build upon it, and deepen your characters a little bit. That’s what we’ve been trying to do as much as possible. Sequels are tricky and not easy. There’s more pressure, because it’s like where do you go? And how do you know it’s the right direction? I’m very proud of where we are with this film and I think we did a good job of letting the movie guide us a little bit. We have such good material, you know, with the premise of the first film and the premise of the books.
Damon Ross: We were also lucky because we had the support of the studio really early. We knew we had something as we were making the first one. We knew we had something special on our hands. And the studio believed in it as well. We were actually able to start developing and brainstorming the concept and ideas for the sequel about four or five months before the release of the first movie. So we bet on ourselves. We had a first draft (of the script) a couple of months after the release of the first film, which put us in a really great position. We weren’t starting from scratch. We were ahead of the curve.
Were there any sequels that you looked to as inspiration? Is there a special sauce as to how a sequel works so much better than the first one?
Pierre Perifel: That’s a great question. I guess there’s a bunch of sequels that don’t work as well as the first one, so how do we not do that?(Laughs). I think what we had really helps us, because, frankly, the books and (author) Aaron Blabey is such a massive fan of American cinema, and he really taps into that in each subsequent book.. He really taps into a specific genre. The first movie was an homage to the heist genre. So, for this, it’s how do we take that and make it bigger and play in a different sandbox? And I think that naturally led us to paying homage to the Mission: Impossible films and James Bond.
Damon Ross: It’s hard. The creative mantra for The Bad Guys is silly and sophisticated. So, we really look at every scene, every element, and think, “Are we doing both at the same time?” You don’t want to take yourself too seriously, but you also want to make sure the stakes are real and there’s warmth and heart at the centre. I really think we did (it). We took all the essence and spirit of the first movie and dialed it up to 11 here.
Did the reception of the first film influence any creative decisions here?
Damon Ross: I mean, I’d say the character of Diane Foxington really popped in the first movie. You get a little taste of her in the trailer, but she’s definitely in the second one, and she’s kind of a scene stealer. She’s really fantastic.
Pierre Perifel: Yeah, she has her own kind of storyline here. And we love her so much. She’s a badass. But, to answer your question, I think we saw the reaction of people to this character, and we knew we needed her. She’s definitely a big part of the franchise.
Off the mention of her character, you have this voice cast. Do they have a sense of ownership over these characters? Do they inject a lot of their own ideas into the story?
Pierre Perifel: Yeah, we tried with this one, even more than the first, to foster improvisation, adlibbing, and all that. I think we benefitted a lot more from adlibs on this one. We used it a lot more in the movie itself. It kind of gives a more naturalistic flow to the dialogue and to the characters. In that sense, it’s a bit of an innovation from the first film.
Damon Ross: We did a lot more of that in this second film, where it’s just those improvisational moments, those little off-script riffs that the actors did. You know, we brought as much of that in as we could and it just sparkles. We also had the opportunity on this one, which we didn’t get to do on the first one, which is have the core bad guy group, the five (actors) record together. They recorded about five scenes together early in the process. Sam Rockwell was like, “Why can’t we do this every time?” Scheduling is really, really challenging (laughs). But we did it absolutely as much as possible. We didn’t get the five of them together again, but we had certainly made sure for the meatier scenes they were together.
Obviously COVID affected the first film in the sense of recording together, but were there any issues that came up with the first film that you knew how to manoeuvre for this second film?
Pierre Perifel: Great question. I mean it’s a definitely an evolution all the time, right? Because you get to know your cast better. You get to just create bonds with every single one of those actors you work for so long on these movies. But on the heels of that, COVID also helped us be able to record them together, because we could easily get one actor in one studio in London and one in New York and then sync everything up through zoom and record them at the same time. That was super convenient.
Damon Ross: We learned to listen to this movie more. And, like Pierre mentioned, we’re constantly evolving as we’re making it. (The movie) is really speaking to you. To balance the story we started when we got that green light. The ingredients are still there, but it’s evolved in so many ways through the making of it in ways we couldn’t have necessarily anticipated.
Pierre Perifel: And not being spooked by it. Because sometimes you just want to control this beast. You realise, the more you fight, the harder you make your life, and the trickier it gets. I think, in this case, we realised it was telling us something. Let’s listen to the film a little bit.
One of the great messages of the first film was to not judge people by what we see on the surface. Obviously, not necessarily “listen to bad guys”, but were there any news messages or thematics that you wanted to expand upon here?
Pierre Perifel: I think that message is still relevant. It will always be somewhat relevant, because it’s really the story of these villains that are becoming heroes through their journey of life, really, and therefore looking for belonging from a society that hates them. In this story, I think we naturally were led to a different path. In this first movie, our bad guys are changing. They embrace a new life, Wolf, in particular, embraces a new life and drags the whole gang down with him. Like, alright, we’re bad now, but we’re going to go good. And he feels responsible for the rest of the gang, just dragging them into this new life. And it turns out, this new life after prison, where he thought it would be easy to be accepted by society and embraced, it turns out it doesn’t work like that. You come out of prison, you’re still an ex-con, you’re still scary, because he’s Wolf and people don’t trust him. So we start the movie there where Wolf is quite scary, and realising that it’s not easy to live a normal life.
Damon Ross: I think he feels slightly, I mean, we’re not on the nose with this, but he’s slightly guilty. He’s pitched this good life to the crew, and he’s dragged them away. What seemed like a great thing for “the bad guys” with this new life is not all it’s cracked up to be. He’s like, “Well, what was the right choice? Did I do the right thing?” Wolf ultimately is tested with his decision to go good with this new female crime team, The Bad Girls, who are going to lure them back into the bad life. It’s bringing (the crew) out of retirement and asking them to do one last job.
Pierre Perifel: It’s the classic trope.
And just quickly before I wrap up, one of my favourite films of all time is a sequel (Batman Returns), and I have to ask both of you what you would consider to be the greatest sequel of all time? The Bad Guys 2 excluded, obviously.
Damon Ross: That’s a really good question. For me? And I’m only giving this a second’s thought, and it’s also entirely biased, but the second Shrek film is freaking amazing. Shrek 2 is so good. But I’ll keep thinking of others.
Pierre Perifel: I think I’ll have to go towards Lord of the Rings. Definitely Mission: Impossible. I mean, there’s so many. It’s thinking of a global arc for the characters. An evolution. I think we’re looking at The Bad Guys as a whole picture. A whole architecture.
The Bad Guys 2 is currently scheduled for release in Australian cinemas in September 2025.
