Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Violent Night.
Of course, it’s Christmas time, so we had to get the annual weird Christmas movie and that movie in 2022 is Violent Night. Violent Night, which was directed by Tommy Wirkola, stars David Harbour as Santa Claus, who is thinking about giving up his annual tradition of visiting the homes of children and giving them gifts. As he is going about his business and sampling the milk, cookies, alcohol, and massage chair of a wealthy family, a team of Christmas-themed killers, led by Krampus (John Leguizamo) assaults their mansion to keep them hostage until they can find the money that the matriarch of the family, Gertrude Lightstone (Beverly D’Angelo), keeps on the property.
Spoilers ahead.
Santa at first tries to leave the mansion, but once he is contacted by the smallest member of the family, Trudy (Leah Brady), he realizes that the right thing to do is to save the girl (who has been marked nice), from the evil goons (who have all been marked naughty). As the film is reminiscent of Nobody, John Wick, and Die Hard, it might be worth a deep look at it and deduce if Violent Night has the potential for a sequel.
How does Violent Night end and could there be a sequel?
Throughout the film Santa deals with the goons, finding creative ways to kill them. In what might be the weirdest aspect of the film, they introduce a backstory for Santa, making him an old warrior whose weapon of choice was a war hammer. So, when an advanced squad arrives at the mansion and joins the goons, they hunt him down and corner him in a large shed that happens to have a large hammer. Santa uses a mix of stealth and sheer hammer-smashing skills to take out each member of the squad one by one.
When he has finally dispatched all the minor members of his crew, Santa jumps on a sled and chases Krampus down, eventually killing him. Unfortunately, the head of the squad, Commander Thorp (Mike Dopud), had not been killed and he managed to give Santa a seemingly fatal wound. After Thorp had been disposed of, the entire family gathered around and watched Santa die. Except Santa’s magic awakened. So, with every family member watching, and following a child’s wish, Santa lived once again.
Mr. Claus jumps on his sleigh and flies away leaving the Lightstones and most likely fulfilling his Christmas duties. Is there room for a sequel in that ending? There are absolutely opportunities for a Violent Night 2, even if the post-credits scene leaves little to be desired. First of all, the film makes multiple references to Mrs. Claus, Santa’s wife. But the film does not feature her or show where the pair live. So, instead of Santa going away for Christmas, maybe we see him at home with Mrs. Claus, and they have to defend their home against some invaders in the sequel?
In fact, the film deliberately makes references to Santa lore, as he can check who is naughty and nice, has a bottomless sack, has pet reindeer who can fly, and has the ability to travel by chimney. Maybe in the next film, we see Santa battle against the armies of Jack Frost or some other Christmas-themed character with a twist? The character does not even have to be related to Christmas, instead, it could be a character representative of another holiday, like the evil forces of the Easter Bunny or a Halloween skeleton, with a pumpkin for a head.
Or, we could just get David Harbour in a Violent Night: Origin movie. He did look pretty good dressed up as the warrior in the brief flashbacks throughout the movie. It could be interesting to see how he actually got his powers and how his powers might have worked, as during the movie he usually explained away his powers as ‘Santa Magic.’ This is probably unlikely though as there seems not to be much of an origin story behind him. Maybe having Harbour become Santa and go through his first real Christmas, could be the idea for a prequel instead.
There is also the slight possibility that we might, one day, see a crossover film with the stars of these recent action films, especially seeing as most of the films have one man in common. David Leitch directed Bullet Train and Atomic Blonde and he co-directed John Wick. He also produced Nobody and, you guessed it, Violent Night. Now not everything needs to be a massive franchise, but because John Wick has what might be the best excuse for a team-up movie, this might actually be in the realm of possibility.
The entire plot of the John Wick franchise revolves around a secret society of assassins who gather in a hotel called The Continental. You could already have seen the characters in Bullet Train, Nobody, and Atomic Blonde fit in with the world of John Wick neatly. But if you were to add Santa Claus into the mix it would most likely be too much. Except, they have set themselves up quite nicely. Santa was killing people who were naughty in Violent Night and who are naughtier than those who kill others. So what if Santa was to visit a branch of The Continental in the second film?
Santa Claus visits a large hotel, full of hitmen. Well, it would play out in a similar fashion to Die Hard you would have to imagine. Although, the properties mentioned are not all owned by the same companies, with David Leitch being the only link. But you can’t deny that Santa Claus fighting John Wick would turn out to be a great movie. Sadly, this one might be unlikely as well, as John Wick killing Santa Claus might just be one step too far.
Ultimately, whether the film will get a sequel probably comes down to whether the film does well at the box office, and whether Harbour wants to come back and be involved in Violent Night 2.
If you are in for a violence-infused Christmas movie, go catch Violent Night while it is in theaters now.
