Stephen Lang looks like he was carved out of granite and the actor gives off the impression that he’s someone you definitely don’t want to mess with. He’s leveraged that to great effect, too, by building a solid career out of playing the bad guy, although he’s also portrayed more sympathetic figures in the likes of Jason Momoa actioner Braven and entertainingly gory B-movie VFW.
One of the 68 year-old’s most memorable recent roles, though, was in Fede Alvarez’s horror/thriller hybrid Don’t Breathe, where he played the terrifying antagonist. The pic was made for less than $10 million and went on to score over $150 million at the box office, as well as receiving enthusiastic reviews that praised both the sense of atmospheric dread and Lang’s performance.
Given the profit margins, it wasn’t surprising when a sequel was handed the green light, and Don’t Breathe 2 is now scheduled to hit theaters next August. In a recent interview, Lang was asked what fans can expect from it and admitted that the follow-up is looking to put a different spin on the premise, and will tell a standalone story.
“I never walked away from a scene on this feeling like we’d left something on the table there. We really strived to get everything we could out of it. It has a tremendous kinship with the first film, but in many ways, in every way, it’s very much its own thing.”
The first movie ended with Lang’s character recuperating in hospital having dished out his unique brand of justice to a young gang of home invaders, and the sequel picks up years later with him living in an isolated cabin, having also become something of a father figure after taking in and raising a young girl who lost her parents in a fire.
However, when kidnappers snatch the kid, the Blind Man is forced into action in order to save the day, and based on that synopsis alone, Don’t Breathe 2 sounds like an entirely different flick, one that reinvents the first film’s villain as a potential antihero.
