They were beloved by many fans back in 2022, and three years later, they’re back for more! After years of incredible heists and plots, Wolf, Snake, Shark, and the whole gang are trying to reform themselves and lead normal lives. However, they seemingly get roped back into a life of crime by an up and coming criminal gang known as The Bad Girls: Kitty Kat, Pigtail, and Doom. While the Bad Guys plan to sabotage the Bad Girls and prove their “goodness,” will the Bad Guys truly stay good, or will they become bad again?
While we don’t necessarily have the answers to these questions, the movie’s panel at the San Diego Comic Con provides at least a glimpse into this sequel.
The Gang Reunites
Thankfully, we get to see the cast from the previous movie reassemble on stage for the fans: Sam Rockwell (Wolf), Marc Maron (Snake), Craig Robinson (Shark), Anthony Ramos (Piranha), and last but definitely not least, Awkwafina (Tarantula). Surprisingly, the only ones who didn’t reappear were Zazie Beetz (Diane Foxington), Richard Ayoade (Professor Marmalade), and Alex Borstein (Police Chief Misty Luggins). While they weren’t necessarily the main focus of the first film, they each played essential roles nonetheless. Regardless, it was still amazing to see the gang back together again. When I watched videos of their interviews to prepare for this article, I must admit it was very fun to see everyone be so chummy with the interviewers and even each other, as if they were already a friend group that stuck together since kindergarten. For instance, there was an interview where IGN staff member Jeffrey Vega asked everyone if they’ve ever committed any crimes, to which the cast revealed everything from Maron stealing a watermelon to Ramos breaking into a junior high school. All the while, everyone laughed and made sly remarks to each other (I couldn’t tell who but one of them was like “oh so we’re all coming out huh?”), which is nice to see how lightly each cast member was taking it.
What’s Up With The Bad Guys Now?
As mentioned previously, the Bad Guys have served their time in prison and are now trying to be better citizens. From what we’ve seen in trailers thus far, Wolf is trying to apply for a job at the bank while Piranha applies for a security gig, neither of which go successfully. Aside from these, we don’t get much else on where everyone is in their lives, which is where the cast comes in and provides at least a few more clarifying details. For instance, Maron explains that Snake is doing some “spiritual work” with the yoga classes we see in the second trailer. Meanwhile, Robinson says that Shark is also trying to find a job but he’s also working on fixing his avoidant attachment issues, which definitely makes sense after watching him karate chop the police chief in the trailers. Moving on, Awkwafina explains that Tarantula is trying to find a job that deals with her love of computers and IT, which is unsurprising but still refreshing to hear how her character is staying true to herself. Finally, Ramos chimes in with how Piranha is mainly going where everyone else is going (which makes sense for the loose cannon character that he is), but is also apparently interested in figuring out what’s going on with Snake’s “spiritual journey.” What that means is unclear at the moment, as is why Piranha even wants to know in the first place, but it could be an interesting subplot if done correctly. Focusing on Piranha’s investigation could reveal a different side to him that we haven’t seen before, or maybe Piranha could uncover Snake faking the spiritual journey while hiding any feelings about being bad again (I’m mainly spitballing at this point). But no matter where this leads, I’m just excited to get the full picture on the Bad Guys once the movie releases this weekend.
Who Are The Bad Girls?
Alongside the cast of the Bad Guys assembling in the panel, we also get the appearances of Danielle Brooks (Kitty Kat), Maria Bakalova (Pigtail), and Natasha Lyonne (Doom). Much like the previous section, the actresses provide more details on their characters, which is very satisfying since the trailers only give us surface-level introductions. For Brooks, she describes Kat as a “Wolf 2.0,” in that she’s just as charismatic as Wolf and very fun to play, but also makes it very clear that she’s a villain (with the amount of enunciation she used for the word “villain”). As for Maria, she says Pigtail is very strong (which isn’t surprising, given how she looks in the trailer), a big fan of the Bad Guys (again, not surprising), but what is surprising is how Pigtail is apparently a great engineer. There might’ve been a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment in one of the trailers, but Pigtail didn’t look like she’d know anything about engineering, so it was very interesting to hear that. Another thing that’s interesting is hearing how Maria says Pigtail is very sweet and eager to prove herself, which is a huge contrast from how she seems to be a huge brute and punk, but I love seeing how characters defy their initial appearances with traits such as this. Finally, there’s Lyonne, but she doesn’t seem to reveal much about her character of Doom. She says that Doom has “a love thing” going on with Snake, but we already knew that from the trailers. I suppose it’s great to hear it confirmed from the actress herself, but it’s a little annoying and disappointing to hear her reiterate what we’ve recently watched on YouTube. She also reveals Doom as a double agent kind of character, but doesn’t fully elaborate on what that means. Is she gonna betray the Bad Girls? Is she gonna pretend to be on the Bad Guys’ side and then stab them in the back? Unfortunately, it’s all speculation at this point, but that can also be seen as a plus with drawing our interest in. Still, I’m surprised I found out more about Pigtail than the other girls.
Why You Should Be Excited
Even though we’re getting yet another sequel (albeit for an already popular and hilarious movie), the cast makes it clear that this isn’t just another movie in a franchise for them. Instead, everyone shares how they put in a surprising amount of effort into the production. And I say “surprising amount of effort” because Maron actually told everyone that he had people tie up his arms and legs while he gave his lines from from the floor. I believe this was in order to give a truly “snake-accurate” portrayal of his character, which actually reminded me of how Benedict Cumberbatch got on all fours and went wild for his role of Smaug in “The Hobbit.” As if that wasn’t enough, Maron and Lyonne shared that, for their romantic scenes, they went into a booth and made all kinds of disgusting noises like slurping. Even Bakalova put in the extra effort to embody Pigtail’s clumsy side, which actually came naturally for her since she admits she’s also pretty clumsy. From borderline shadowboxing to slipping, Bakalova made sure to portray her character’s well-meaning-but-screwup side accurately. But my favorite part of this interview is when Bakalova transitions into sharing her feelings about being in this sequel. She’s not only excited, but she’s also very passionate! In fact, she’s so passionate that she wants to make sure she doesn’t bring the movie down but bring it higher instead. How awesome is that? I mean, I don’t know about y’all, but I absolutely love good storytelling and the hard work that people put into them. So to hear people like Bakalova say these things make me so happy, and it makes me look all the more forward to it!
