At the recent world premiere of “The Bad Guys 2” in Los Angeles, franchise star Craig Robinson expressed his excitement revisiting his character for a sequel, as did several of his cast members and directors.
“I loved it because you have the confidence with it being the second one,” Robinson said. “They gave me some more crazy stuff to do. It was so much fun and passionate. It’s contagious. They’re amazing to work with alongside producer Damon [Ross] and directors JP [Sans] and Pierre [Perifel]. I had a ball.”
Robinson voices Mr. Shark, who is a part of a group of ex-convicts determined to be good as they reenter society. “The Office” star recently made headlines for his so-called “retirement” stunt for his new marketing campaign with AT&T. When asked if he still had to clear up that he’s not quitting comedy, Robinson told Variety, “Yes, but it’s all good. It was a troll move, but it was nice to see some people care.”
Awkwafina said she has always been a fan of her character, Ms. Tarantula, since the first film.
“It’s great to kind of revisit a character from a movie that you love,” she said. “It’s cool being back in a situation where you never thought you would be back again with the same people, and everyone gets along.”
The premiere was held at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, where Sam Rockwell pulled off a stunt by arriving to the event in a black vehicle reminiscent of his character’s getaway car in the animated film before he was cuffed by two police officers before stepping onto the orange carpet.
Danielle Brooks bonded with Rockwell in their recording sessions as she voiced Kitty Kat, the snow leopard ringleader of the newly introduced criminal group Bad Girls. “I got to be in the booth with Sam, which never really happens,” Brooks said. “That was a lot of fun. He reminded me to loosen up with the script. We did a lot of improv together.” Rounding up the Bad Girls are Bulgarian wild boar Pigtail, which was voiced by Maria Bakalova and Natasha Lyonne as the wry raven Doom (aka Susan).
In the first film, the Bad Guys turn bad to good. “The Bad Guys 2” picks up with the ex-convicts trying to reinvent themselves. Struggling to find socially acceptable jobs outside of their traditional high-stakes operations, they suddenly find themselves framed for a crime they didn’t commit and forced by the Bad Girls to do one last heist.
The returning cast members include Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, Robinson as Mr. Shark, Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula and Alex Borstein as the police commissioner.
The co-director, JP Sans, named Lyonne as having one of the best impromptu moments. “There was a scene with her and Marc where they’re opening up a safe, but they’re also talking about the romanticness of it,” he said. We told Natasha to go wild, and she went wild a little too much, where we could not use the stuff that she said. It was amazing and really funny.”
For the director Pierre Perifel, one of the biggest challenges with doing the sequel was executing the same quality that audiences enjoyed from the first film.
“When you have the opportunity to make a sequel from a movie that people reacted well to, the challenge was, ‘Is there a way I can do it again? Am I going to be successful at doing at least a good job with the same quality or better? Sequels are notoriously complicated to make,” he explained. “That’s the pressure that we’re facing. We had to get out of our way and embrace what was there for us so that the movie and story would develop itself.”
Perifel also spoke about the hopes of a third film, describing a potential “sci-fi and action” direction.
“There’s definitely conversation,” he said. “We’ve been chatting among ourselves out of sheer passion about potentially making a third one. We have ideas and are excited because this is the world we want to play in. It’s so fun. Now, is it going to happen? That’s a different question, because it’s all tied up to much more than just us.”
“Bad Guys 2” is now in theaters.