'Bad Santa 2' Teaser Celebrates Billy Bob Thornton's Return to Christmas Thievery
Billy Bob Thornton has won an Oscar (as a screenwriter) for his 1996 breakout Sling Blade, but the actor’s greatest achievement is arguably his starring turn in Terry Zwigoff’s pitch-black 2003 comedy, Bad Santa. Thirteen years after that corrosive bit of holiday cheer became a naughty seasonal favorite, Thornton is returning to his ne’er-do-well title role in a long-in-the-making sequel. Its brief initial teaser (watch it above) indicates he’ll still be in fine, child-insulting form.
Directed by Mark Waters — hopefully channeling the spirit of his Mean Girls more than his Mr. Popper’s Penguins — Bad Santa 2 will again focus on Thornton’s Willie Soke, a drunken loutish thief who lives for most of the year off of the bounty he steals from the department stores that hire him in December to play Santa Claus. While little is known about what he’ll specifically be up to in this follow-up, it’s been confirmed that both his sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox) and weirdo youthful charge Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly) will factor into the proceedings, as will Christina Hendricks (as Soke’s love interest) and Oscar-winner Kathy Bates (as Soke’s mother).
Related: Billy Bob Thornton Talks ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’
No doubt Bad Santa 2 will revel in the disreputable nastiness of its booze-loving, sex-maniac anti-hero when it rings in the Yuletide season this Nov. 23.
Watch a teaser for the original ‘Bad Santa’:
