Robert Downey Jr. Gave Gerard Butler A Pep Talk Ahead Of ‘Den Of Thieves 2’

“I threw a lot more away in this movie and trusted it,” explains Gerard Butler as we discuss the action sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera in a suite at The London West Hollywood. “I had a conversation with Robert Downey Jr. just before I did this because I was going through some stuff. He was like, ‘Dude, just turn up. Throw it away. Who cares? You’re there.’ It took the weight off my shoulders, and I went in.”

“As an actor, you always want to go, ‘I really want this to work,’ but there was a part of me that is like, ‘Trust it. Just go and have fun. Make it up as you go along,’ and I kind of did. It was a fun experiment for Big Nick and works well in the movie.

2018’s Den of Thieves, the first film in what is now a franchise, grossed $80.5 million against a $30 million budget when it landed in theaters in January 2018. Although it got mixed reviews, the film has continued to acquire a strong following over the intervening years.

“Some people say the level of following has been surprising but I always believed in our movie,” the Scottish actor, who is also one of the producers, admits.” I was very proud of Den of Thieves, but it has been amazing how it stuck with people. This kind of movie will never be for everybody, but it is for a lot of people. What I loved is that a lot of the people who dug it really dug it. It developed a fanatical base, and I think it’s because they don’t make movies like this anymore.”

Why It Took Seven Years To Deliver A ‘Den Of Thieves’ Sequel

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera picks up right after the first film’s events. Butler returns as “Big Nick” O’Brien, who is hot on the tail of Donnie Wilson, once again played by actor-producer O’Shea Jackson, who has fled to Europe and is planning another heist. With stacks of thrilling set pieces and hints of 70s thriller, it’s the kind of mid-budget cat-and-mouse action movie that Hollywood doesn’t make many of these days. Why is that?

“I don’t have an answer to that because I am one of the ones who is still making them,” Butler shrugs. “I love this kind of movie. I think movies change and morph, for better or for worse, and many movies that survive in the cinema now are huge movies or particularly small art house movies, and often that middle of the budget range has not. When you see the movies that they put out, I understand why they don’t make movies like this now; they used to typically make them a lot better. When you get the rare bird, which I believe Den of Thieves is, I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved.” Den of Thieves 2: Pantera lands in theaters on Friday, January 10, 2025.

Seven years have lapsed between Den of Thieves. With a loyal audience ready and hungry for content, what took so long?

“People have commented on the time taken to make this, and maybe it shouldn’t have taken quite this long,” Butler laughs. “There was money, scheduling, and, honestly, getting the script right. The first movie was very specific in its narrative. We were thinking about how to take it to the next level and keep up with the twists, turns, and surprises, but not losing the intelligence of it all. We wanted to give it a new style and tone and take it to Europe. We got rid of a lot of the heavy stuff from the first movie and took a bit of a vacation. You still get a lot of those dark European vibes, but you also get the plush, sexy side of Europe, and that gave us a lot of scope to make the movie look cinematic. It looks amazing, and that’s why I think this really works in theaters.”

How ‘Den Of Thieves 2’ Remembers The Franchise’s LA Roots

Along with Butler and Jackson Jr., writer-director Christian Gudegast returns for Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. Even though the action has switched to Europe, sections of the movie are still grounded in LA, with hyperlocal references that tickle fans but can sometimes be too hyperlocal.

“The Hofbrau and the Hawaiian takeout place that I forget the name of right now, even down the streets they are on that get a mention, are all real places in LA. Christian is so sickeningly specific in his work, and sometimes you have to pull back,” Butler says with a laugh. An audience might miss some of that, and sometimes you have to say, ‘Let’s make it more filmic.’ What you do get from that is such an involved story. There is an intensity and a groundedness because he bases as much as possible on the truth and goes into things. I’ve never seen a director or a writer that I’ve worked with go into anything even as one-tenth as much as Christian does in his research and that attention to detail.”

“We pushed it right to the limit with this one across the board, and there’s a lot of stuff in there. I do feel this movie has such an epic feel from the very start, with Nick in LA and Donnie starting out with the first heist that sets up the second, all the way through to where we get at the end, and even the bonding stuff going through with the mafia, there’s so much going on that by the end, I go, ‘Wow, that really was an adventure.'”

Gerard Butler Wanted The Action Sequences To Be As Real As Possible

While Den of Thieves 2: Pantera aims for the cinematic, the robbery, based on the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, was an exercise in guerrilla filmmaking and it pushed the cast and crew to their limits.

“In the actual heist, from when we entered that building to when we left, I think we shot that over three or four nights. It was so hot. Those costumes were neoprene; you could barely breathe in them because it was in the Canary Islands in summer, and we’re going into little rooms with no air conditioning,” Butler, also known for Olympus Has Fallen and Greenland, recalls. “We’d be filming, and then we’d go again and again, and then we’d move on to the next bit and the next bit. We were trying to film as much as we could, as quickly as we could, and that was part of making it feel as real as possible, so we were in it. We had no time to think about it or make it special.”

“It was like, ‘We’re going, we’re getting through this. We’re moving. We’re into this shit. We’re in the elevator shaft. Oh my god, how do we get to the next place? How do we move as a group?’ It was very involved and very physical, and it was exhausting. We were all overheating. When you see it, you go, ‘Yeah, that works.’ It had to be like that to make it that exciting.'”

He continues passionately, “With both that heist and car chase sequence, we were flying by the seat of our pants. With the car chase at the end, which I find so exciting, it was a big thing for me to say, ‘When we’re in this if everybody commits, let’s make it as violent as possible. When a bullet hits that car, it is loud, it is crazy, it is violent, and you flinch. If we all get that, then we’ve got what we need between the conventional effects that are in there and the effects they’re putting in afterward with the sound. When you see that car chase, it is incredibly violent. I was really proud of how that came out, but we were flying through that to get it done. Even in how we did it, there was something raw, unapologetic, and in your face. It was very clever, but there was also a great amount of tension between the really fun characters. Big Nick is the most fun I’ve ever had with a character because you don’t know what he’s what he’s going to do next.”

Gerard Butler Never Saw His Hit Franchises Coming

With Den of Thieves 2: Pantera leaving the door wide open for a third movie and beyond, that wasn’t the 300 and Geostorm star’s plan. Apparently, it never is.

“I don’t think I’ve ever chosen a movie thinking it was going to be a second film or a trilogy. That just started happening. I have a lot of franchises, but that was never the plan,” Butler shrugs. “With Den of Thieves, we announced the second movie almost the same day the first movie came out; I was a bit like, ‘Oh, really? Now I’m super glad we did. I did not expect there to be a second Greenland. I did not expect more films when I made Olympus Has Fallen. I had zero thought that would move into a second movie and beyond. It was just, ‘Please God, let’s make this work. Let’s make this a good movie.’ It was as simple as that. However, I seem to have become Mr. Franchise at the moment, and definitely on the independent circuit, although one of them is How to Train Your Dragon, which is definitely on the studio level.”

He concludes, “I remember when we were starting out, and people would say, ‘You have got to get a franchise. The franchise is everything,’ and I was like, ‘Really?’ I was thinking, ‘Nobody’s ever going to want to make a franchise with me. I’d be lucky to get a movie, let alone a franchise.’ Now I’m like, ‘What? We’re making this one a franchise, too?’ I did not expect it to be like that, but it was really fun. I don’t really do TV, so you don’t get the chance to do an episode, come back, spend time with a character, so doing this and playing Big Nick and getting to play him a second time, and still really climb into other parts, is great.”