The first punch isn't always the hardest—sometimes it's the one you didn't see coming. Dave Bautista jumping into Guy Ritchie's Road House 2? Didn't have that on my 2024 movie-bingo, not gonna lie.
Last year, Amazon/MGM dropped their reimagined Road House—and it detonated. Nearly 100 million people tuned in. I can't even get four friends to agree on takeout. Streamer's biggest film. Headlines everywhere. But director Doug Liman, who made all that noise, openly trashed its lack of theatrical release—and, surprise: he's out. Guy Ritchie, who's never met a dust-up he didn't want to stylize, is in.
And now, [via Nexus Point News], the next left-hook: Dave Bautista, poised to play a former fighter, a role reportedly “cut from the same cloth as Dalton.” I can't pretend I don't hear the theme song from Rocky swelling somewhere in the background. Doesn't that just fit?
Jake Gyllenhaal's Dalton is coming back for seconds—September is when the shoot gears up, according to the latest word. New cast, new brawlers, maybe a whole new house to tear up. Translation: don't expect a nostalgia tour. Most of the original's characters aren't invited to this party. This? This is Ritchie's show now. Get ready for tighter slow-mo and more broken glass.
Honestly, it's hard not to read this as a statement. Amazon wants flash, Ritchie loves flash, and Bautista—just watch him in anything post-WWE—brings a quiet gravity that somehow makes “quiet” look dangerous. Put it this way: the man steals the show by just standing there. (Sidebar: would watch him act against an actual pane of glass for two hours.)
We've seen what happens when action sequels try to play the same old song. Doesn't work anymore. Not really. Not since streaming took over and every punch-up can be paused mid-air. With Road House 2, the moves are bigger, the faces grittier, the nostalgia safely in the rearview—if not in a ditch. Ritchie isn't subtle, but neither is the world right now.
Will it work? No one knows. Who cares. This is the kind of sequel that rips the bandage off, throws the old script in the blender, and dares you not to flinch. And with Bautista in the mix, yeah—at least the furniture's not making it out alive.
Shooting starts September. I kind of wish it started yesterday.
