Last Christmas, David Harbour’s Santa nearly gave his heart to the wrong Mrs. Claus, but the very next day, the Violent Night writers threw that scene away.
As Kristen Bell debuts her Mrs. Claus in Violent Night 2, premiering Dec. 4, producer Kelly McCormick revealed that the character was almost introduced at the end of the 2022 holiday action comedy, but that version would have been a “totally different” character.
“We almost put a button in the back of Violent Night with Mrs. Claus,” McCormick told SlashFilm. “If we would’ve done that, she would’ve been somebody totally different in this one, and it would’ve been a different movie, if she was already introduced. So it was really hard. To be honest, we overthought it to the point where we never made an offer for the role of Mrs. Claus.”
McCormick, who is David Leitch’s wife and partner at 87North, couldn’t be happier than with Bell in the role, praising the 3x Emmy nominee’s performance.
“Just kind of through divine intervention, Kristen just sort of appeared,” she noted. “A lot of it was because David Harbour and she have a long friendship, and I am obsessed with her. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’ll never get her. Are you kidding? She’s busy and she’s amazing.’ And I don’t even know. That’s like Christmas happening for the movie if we get Kristen.
“She’s just honestly perfect. What she does as a character is this very loving sort of push toward Santa understanding how to get back on the nice list and also kicking major ass. Having the permission to do that because she’s just Kristen Bell as Mrs. Claus, she’s just that cool,” added McCormick.
Directed by Tommy Wirkola from a script by Pat Casey and Josh Miller, Violent Night 2 sees Santa (Harbour) trying to re-discover the true meaning of Christmas after ending up on the Naughty List and stripped of his magic, all while taking on a ruthless mobster terrorizing the mall.
