DreamWorks Schedules 'The Bad Guys 2' For August 2025 Heist
The team is getting back together for another “one last job”
I used to heist, now I just heist down? What was I bad for? Fresh off the box office success of the latest Kung Fu Panda film continuing the story of an unlikely hero, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation have officially set August 1, 2025 for the return of The Bad Guys with The Bad Guys 2. The date had always been set for a DreamWorks film.
After the news made the trades, DreamWorks Animation confirmed it on their socials, posting “It's still good to be bad! #TheBadGuys are coming back to theaters summer of 2025!“ with a hashtag for the sequel. Following up on the 2022 film, the cast returns to reprise their roles, unlike last year’s holiday special. That means Sam Rockwell as Mr. Wolf, Marc Maron as Mr. Snake, Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark, Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha and Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula, aka Webs. In addition, some of the supporting cast also returns, namely Richard Ayoade as Professor Marmalade, Zazie Beetz as Diana Foxington, Alex Borstein as police chief Misty Luggins and Lilly Singh as Tiffany Fluffit.
The logline reads “The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do ‘one last job’ by an all-female squad of criminals.” While sounding very relapse-y, it certainly brings promise for further casting announcements down the line for that group of feminine felons.
Based on Aaron Blabey’s New York Times best-selling book series, the first The Bad Guys film earned $250.4 million at the worldwide box office when it was released in 2022 to great acclaim. For this film Pierre Perifel returns to direct and Daniel Pemberton to score with Damon Ross returning as producer. After serving as head of character animation on the first film, JP Sans ascends to be co-director. The Bad Guys 2 is DreamWorks Animation’s second film of next year, with Dog Man set for a January 31 release. They and this September’s The Wild Robot are all based on books, though this is nothing new for the studio since Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Boss Baby are too. It also comes as layoffs, or whatever the studio is insisting on calling them, leave many wondering what the future of the studio could be. Possibly numbering into the hundreds, workers have been informed that they will be reduced between mid-April and July. Many departments are being halved, with staff on creative features possibly matching such reductions. COO Randy Lake has played PR, labeling it a mix of “downsizing through “natural attrition””and contracts not being renewed.
Source(s): Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Cartoon Brew