The first time Guy Ritchie and Jake Gyllenhaal teamed up, on 2023’s The Covenant, we got a bruising Afghanistan war drama that saw the Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels filmmaker dial back on his more explosive directorial impulses to deliver something low-key, introspective, and surprisingly subdued. We’d hazard a guess that those three descriptors will probably not apply to the dynamic duo’s next movie, which Deadline has today confirmed will be Road House 2, Amazon MGM Studios’ follow-up to Doug Liman’s boozy, bromantic 2024 brawl-em-up.
Having racked up millions of minutes viewed after dropping on Prime Video last March, the announcement of a second round for Jakey G’s MMA fighter-turned-bouncer Elwood Dalton barely two months later came as no surprise. And given Doug Liman’s vocal distaste for the straight-to-streaming approach Amazon took with his retooling of Rowdy Herrington’s 1989 Patrick Swayze star vehicle, today’s definitive confirmation that he won’t be returning to helm this sequel is similarly unsurprising. The Guy Ritchie directorial coup however is far more eyebrow raising, as even though we have no idea what Elwood’s return has in store for us, the prospect of seeing Ritchie let off the leash on a Road House joint with a ripped and ready Jake Gyllenhaal at his disposal is a tantalising one, indeed.
Beyond the new director and reconfirmation of Gyllenhaal’s return, the only other concrete bit of info we have on Road House 2 is that Bad Boys: Ride Or Die writer Will Beall is handling the script, which at least suggests things are not about to get any less nuts down in Florida Keys second time around. Oh, and we’d be willing to bet good money that despite miraculously surviving about eleventy-million stab wounds in the first film, Connor McGregor’s chaotic ruffian Knox won’t be stopping by the Road House again anytime soon. Still, we’ll look forward to seeing Jake Gyllenhaal be nice until it’s time to not be nice whenever Road House 2 rocks up on our screens. In the meantime, please spare a thought for the poor Floridian musicians whose art will inevitably be drowned out by the sounds of smashed glass and thrown fists on Elwood Dalton’s watch when the roughest bar around reopens its doors…
