Pantera Cast and Crew Discuss Raising the Stakes for the Heist Sequel

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 8, 2025 24 Views 12 Min Read
Pantera Cast and Crew Discuss Raising the Stakes for the Heist Sequel



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Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is the upcoming sequel to 2018’s Den of Thieves, a heist movie that tells the story of ‘Big’ Nick O’Brien (Gerard Butler) and his unorthodox police crew as they attempt to track and apprehend a sophisticated criminal gang led by Merriman (Pablo Schreiber). The first movie’s climax reveals that the character of Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), thought to be Big Nick’s informant, was actually the mastermind behind Merriman’s plans, so the sequel finds Nick hot on Donnie’s heels in pursuit. However, for reasons unknown thus far, the two end up working on the same side of a new diamond heist.

Game Rant caught up with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera‘s lead actors Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., as well as director Christian Gudegast and producer Tucker Tooley, to discuss the upcoming movie. They talked about returning to the high-stakes world for the sequel, as well as what the future could have in store for the franchise. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Den of Thieves Was Always Planned to Have Sequels

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Q: Den of Thieves ended with a pretty surprise revelation. Did you always intend to make a sequel? Or, if not, when and why was the decision made to make one?

Gudegast: We always intended to do one because, while researching the first one, we came across so many heists from all over the world that were fascinating and equally interesting, and there’s no way we could jam all that into one. We had so much content that we couldn’t squeeze it into one movie. We almost had enough content for several seasons or a series about it, so the idea was always to repeat it in various parts of the world.

Q: The first movie received a lot of praise for its intense and realistic heist sequences. How did you attempt to raise the bar in the sequel?

Gudegast: Just by doing the work, knowing where we wanted to go. Doing a deeper dive into the research, into the actual heist that the movie is based on, working with those law enforcement cops who were the investigators. They opened up their case files. We got a glimpse into the world, how it was actually done, and the specifics of it, which is fascinating. On the gangster, thief side of it, we learned what makes them tick, why they do what they do, and their skill sets. The more and more you do, the deeper you dive into those worlds. It’s fascinating stuff, and that’s the heart of all this, right? That’s the core of it.

The Evolution of Den of Thieves

Q: How do you see the Den of Thieves franchise evolving in the future?

Tooley: We have very definitive plans for the next one. As Christian said, we always designed this to be a franchise. You caught the hint at the end of the first, in terms of what would happen in the second. There’s something in the second that hints at a third as well, so it’ll be a whole new environment. It’ll be a whole new thing, with the same characters, and we’re super excited to keep this going.

Q: How did the collaboration between Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson shape this film compared to the first?

Gudegast: In the first movie, Donnie and his crew, on the gangster side, were kept completely separate from the cops and Nick’s crew. When we were making it, they were physically separate, and they hung out in different places. We would even have each group work together, but never with each other. They developed a natural rivalry, which is important for their performance in the movie. It worked great. With this one, we did the opposite. We literally had them as neighbors. We put them in houses next door; they shared a wall. They hung out together all the time, not even with us, just on their own, to develop that real camaraderie and friendship. The results of this can be seen on screen.

How Den of Thieves 2 Will Subvert Expectations

Q: What’s one aspect of this film that you think will catch audiences off guard that perhaps they aren’t expecting?

Tooley: I can think of a couple of things. One is the unlikely friendship that develops between Nick and Donnie. Another is hopefully the continuation of the twist that I, for the most part, don’t believe that an audience will see coming. They’ll expect a twist, but they’re not going to expect the twist that we give them. I think other things are surprising, but at the same time, it’s all grounded in real stuff. These heists, these characters, are all compilations of real heists that have happened, with real people that we’ve studied for a long time. As Christian said, we have our technical advisors on set, advising us on the authenticity of everything, so we really pay close attention to that.

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Den of Thieves 2: Pantera Cranks Nick and Donnie’s Chemistry Up a Notch

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Q: Gerard, your character, Big Nick, is a loose cannon, with a huge personality. There are some parallels between Nick and Al Pacino’s character in the movie Heat. How did you prepare to dive back into Nick’s mindset for the sequel, and did you draw any inspiration from Pacino in Heat, or is that just coincidental?

Butler: Heat is one of my favorite movies, but no, I don’t think I had to, to be honest. Big Nick is such an irrepressible, unforgettable character in his own right, that if you have all these ideas, these thoughts in front of you, all this stuff to play around with, then it would be a bit of a waste to maybe go and start looking at somebody else’s performance and try mimicking that. I work a lot on these scripts with the director, Christian, all the time, and this one kept me very much engaged in the story and why everything was happening. That’s been one of the linchpins for me always, in terms of being able to get into a character.

I was amazed at how it was kind of like a glove in terms of getting back into Nick, but I also needed to let go of certain things. His confidence has been a bit destroyed, so I don’t think he needed to be as physically brash and posing, which also weirdly allowed for more color, more humor, and more vulnerability. Even in his unhingedness, there were different levels of that, so I felt I could say more by maybe not committing quite as much to some of those decisions as I did in the first movie.

Q: O’Shea, the dynamic between Donny and Nick is electric. How did you see that kind of dynamic switching up during the sequel?

Jackson Jr.: Firstly, in Den of Thieves, we were separated by our director, Christian. He kept us separate to build two separate families. The idea was that, once they collide, we would get a fresh look at it on camera. But when I heard that Nick was going to be teaming up with me in this movie, I was like, “Okay, this is a whole different world.” It’s like drafting a rival team’s best player, so it was exciting. I knew that it meant I got to pick Gerard’s brain a little bit more and get to know him better.

We became really cool on set, whether it was him giving me advice on questions I had about the direction of my career or me asking about how he handled certain situations that he’s already been through. We bonded, and it came out on camera. When you’re happy to see somebody at work every day, it’s going to show, especially when you’re improving and trying to find a common goal. You definitely want to make movies with people that you would want to kick it with for months at a time!

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