Will Ferrell, we thought you were above this.
Sure, Daddy’s Home was a box office success, generating $240 million globally despite its generic plot and lack of any additions to the Ferrell-Wahlberg dynamic, which was thoroughly nailed in The Other Guys. But that doesn’t mean we need a Daddy’s Home 2, which, unfortunately, is exactly what The Wrap tells us we’re getting. Sean Anders and John Morris will return to write the sequel’s script, with Anders retaking his place in the director’s chair.
But what could another iteration of this story concept possibly have to offer? The first film wasn’t anywhere near legendary like Anchorman or Step Brothers were, only serving as further evidence that Ferrell appears to be on the comedic decline. He’s not at Adam Sandler level yet, because Funny or Die is a solid venture and he was superb in voicing The LEGO Movie’s Lord Business, but can you name the last iconic live-action Ferrell movie? The Anchorman and Zoolander sequels don’t count, since they rode waves of nostalgia instead of original comedic genius.
Hopefully, Ferrell’s upcoming films Zeroville and The House will be the revitalizations of his career that Daddy’s Home 2 almost certainly will not be. The former has him joining the James Franco-Seth Rogen crew, while the latter has him working with Amy Poehler in a dynamic that oozes potential.
The question remains, though: why is Ferrell, who probably doesn’t need the money, making another Daddy’s Home? Maybe he likes working with Wahlberg, and this is a convenient excuse to do so, an easy green light from Paramount Pictures. And if this is truly just a passion project for Ferrell and Wahlberg, good for them. But it’s a damn shame that they couldn’t put their heads together and come up with something more original for their next collaboration—or that the economics of the industry dictated that anything more original would be stopped before its start.
Daddy’s Home 2 is currently without a release date.