Violent Night star David Harbour says he'd fight Billy Bob Thornton's Santa 'any day of the week'

Santa has his claws out.

Violent Night star David Harbour and the film's director Tommy Wirkola stopped by EW's New York Comic Con studio on Friday, and dished on their new bloody Christmas film.

In it, Harbour stars as Santa Claus, who must step in and save the day when a group of mercenaries start attacking the estate of a wealthy family on Christmas Eve. John Leguizamo stars as the film's villain and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation vet Beverly D'Angelo is also among the cast.

Turns out, Harbour has some ideas about which other fictional Santas his character could take on. For starters, the one he wouldn't want to tangle with is the Santa portrayed by Edmund Gwenn in the original Miracle on 34th Street. "There's something about the twinkle in his eye and his stature as a guy of that era that's always somewhat terrified me, so I wouldn't want to go up against him," Harbour says. However, he jokes, "I'll take on Billy Bob Thornton's [character in Bad Santa] any day of the week. But [Gwenn], I would not go near him."

Universal; Tracy Bennett/Dimension David Harbor in 'Violent Night' and Billy Bob Thornton in 'Bad Santa'

The first trailer for the film shows a bloodied Santa kicking some major ass, which is fitting, because according to Wirkola, Violent Night can be described as "Die Hard with Santa Claus." The helmer says he was enamored with the idea from the start. "I read it, and I loved it. It was fun, it was humorous, it was crazy, and everything you expect it to be, but it also had a lot of heart. It felt like a Christmas movie. I loved it from the first second I read it."

Harbour says it was a "very trippy" experience seeing himself as Saint Nick, and getting to play around with different versions of the character. "The interesting thing about this movie, is that Santa's journey, we get to see a lot of Santa origin story in a certain way," Harbour says. "There's some backstory of Santa that we're going to get into in the movie about why he's able to kick so much ass."

This means audiences get to see Harbour as the version of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas that they already know — think the Coca-Cola Santa character — as well as a more violent take on the character. "We see a whole different guy. So seeing the saccharine Santa Claus was one end of the experience in the beginning, and then seeing the guy with the man bun every day and blood running down his face was an entirely different joy," says Harbour.

Violent Night hits theaters Dec. 2. For more with Harbour and Wirkola, check out the full interview in the video above.

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