‘Bad Guys 2’ Director Pierre Perifel and Producer Damon Ross Break Down the New Trailer: ‘A Fun Ride on a Much Bigger Scale’

“The Bad Guys” are back.

DreamWorks Animation’s 2022 hit, which embraced influences as diverse as Quentin Tarantino movies and Hayao Miyazaki’s work on “Sherlock Hound,” has got a brand-new sequel coming August 1, 2025. You can watch the trailer for “The Bad Guys 2” below and stick around for our chat with director Pierre Perifel and producer Damon Ross.

When “The Bad Guys” was released, it was notable for breaking from the “house style” of DreamWorks – the brightly imagined worlds of, say, “Shrek” or “Madagascar,” which could have individual personality, but largely played in the same sandbox – instead adopting a more graphic look that was startling and hugely appreciated. For the sequel, Perifel wanted to push things further, which you can see in the trailer.

“This new one is really all about opening the universe of ‘The Bad Guys,’ – both story-wise, where we’re going to just explore the new set pieces and characters, just leave the centralized cities, and explore different locations – and more cinematic sets, which is super exciting. We’re pushing the visual style,” Perifel explained. “We reshaped our characters a little bit. We are going to add special effects that feel a bit more like hand-drawn. There’s definitely more line work in the texturing and brush strokes. We’re pushing a bit more stylized. We’re not going too crazy. It’s still going to feel like ‘The Bad Guys” with that very painterly, illustrative look.”

This time around, the team was inspired by even bigger action movies – things like the James Bond films and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” series.

“That’s something that the book series does quite a bit – it genre hops,” said Ross. “He [Australian author Aaron Blabey] spends a little time in one genre. Jumps to another, jumps to another. Even when we were starting the first movie, we thought, if we had a chance to make a second, a third, more movies, we would love to do the same, not just do heist movie in different locations. There’s definitely ratcheted-up action set pieces. Nobody does set pieces better than ‘Mission: Impossible.’ There’s a lot of that in this movie.”

Another new addition to the franchise is a trio of new villains, played by Danielle Brooks, Maria Bakalova and Natasha Lyonne. “They’re struggling a little bit, going from job interviews to try and pay bills that they can’t afford, until they get captured by this trio of super villains, and forced to do one last job,” Perifel said. “The movie is about testing Wolf’s determination to be a good guy. Did he make the right choice? That really is the big philosophical argument for him.”

“It’s one thing to go good, it’s quite another to stay good,” added Ross.

The new characters are borrowed from the books, but have a new configuration in the movie – a snow people played by Brooks, “who is essentially Wolf 2.0” (according to Perifel); a wild boar played by Bakalova, “the MacGyver engineer of the group” (said Ross); and a raven played by Lyonne, “the femme fatale of the group – dry and quick-witted and very sarcastic” (said Perifel).

When we asked what he’s most excited about fans experiencing when it comes to “The Bad Guys 2” (without spoiling anything, of course), Perifel said, “What I love about Marvel movies is the opening of this universe where you start with one superhero and just slowly build up a world around it. For us, it was really important to open the world and give the audience something that you can see could have more movies behind that one. For me, it really is a fun ride, but on a much bigger scale and higher octane than the first film. And I think that’s what I’m excited to see how audience react to this.”

“We established our characters in the first movie. Now we get a chance to expand and deepen those characters, the hard work (done) of just introducing them, as in the past. Now we can add the different dimensions and layers and get to know them even better,” said Ross.

You’ll get the chance to experience all of these new layers when “The Bad Guys 2” opens on August 1, 2025.

The post ‘Bad Guys 2’ Director Pierre Perifel and Producer Damon Ross Break Down the New Trailer: ‘A Fun Ride on a Much Bigger Scale’ appeared first on TheWrap.