Gerard Butler & O’Shea Jackson Jr. on Working Together in Den of Thieves 2

ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. about Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. Butler and Jackson Jr. discussed reuniting for the new Den of Thieves sequel, how they got into character for certain scenes, and more.

“Gerard Butler (Plane, Has Fallen series) and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Out of Compton, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) return in the sequel to 2018’s action-heist hit Den of Thieves,” the official synopsis reads. “In Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Big Nick (Butler) is back on the hunt in Europe and closing in on Donnie (Jackson), who is embroiled in the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s largest diamond exchange.”

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera releases in United States theaters on January 10, 2025.

Brandon Schreur: I just loved the dynamic of your characters in this movie. Especially because, in the first movie, you guys are so pitted against each other. Here, it’s a little back-and-forth, but for a lot of it, you guys are like buddy-buddy friends. I thought that was a ton of fun to watch. I’m just wondering, when you first got the script for Den of Thieves 2, was this what you were expecting the sequel to look like? Did you see any of this coming when you were making the first movie?

Gerard Butler: Definitely not, no. I don’t think, if I’m being honest, we didn’t make the first movie ever with the view to making a second. The first just felt like a one-off, really cool story. The more we were making it, the better it felt. Then when it came out, we were like, ‘I think we made a classic movie with just a lot of great moments, unforgettable story, and characters.’ 

But when it was suddenly me jumping to the other side, catching up with him, and going, ‘No dude, that’s not how I want to do it — go to jail or work with me.’ It’s a fascinating concept. It jumped; because where do you take it to in the next movie? There were a lot of places we could have taken it to without going that far, but this way opened up a whole other thing that I think allows us to never really know where we are in terms of the tension, the brotherhood, the bonding, the trust, the lack of trust, the twists, the turns, the rug being pulled out from under you, and the tension.

O’Shea Jackson Jr.: It definitely felt like, number one, when Christian called and told me, ‘Alright, let me give you the rundown of where we are.’ He said, ‘Big Nick is going to team up with you.’ It’s like getting your rival team’s best player during the off-season. It’s a great feeling.

It’s definitely not where I thought things would end up, and that’s where it’s supposed to be. In this new age, we have fans — or audiences, I should say — who are so smart at seeing things go a certain way. They expect or they know what’s going to happen next. Then you start to blend into the clichéd way of doing things. When you can open a new door to possibilities, that’s when you can keep them entertained and remind them, ‘Nah, man, just enjoy the ride, watch where we take you.’

Oh, I totally agree. And it is so entertaining, the whole ride, you never know what’s coming next and I love that about the movie. Gerard, there’s a scene — or a couple of scenes, really — I’ve got to talk to you about where your character goes off to a club, does a whole bunch of drugs, and starts dancing around. It looks like he’s having the time of his life, but I’m guessing that’s actually pretty hard to act and people don’t realize it. How do you go about capturing that kind of energy in that moment?

Butler: Well, that day, I walked around — do you remember that? I just pretended I was on drugs the whole time. So, every moment. I was touching things and just really kind of feeling that. I even told my dialect coach that I had just done a bunch of ecstasy beforehand. And I’m sober. So she went away and got worried saying, ‘Gerry is on drugs, he’s high as a kite and he’s doing this movie!’ 

You’ve got to commit to it. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but the more that you commit to it, the more you have fun. And it was a lot of fun. In the club with the conversation, the dancing, and just improvising. That was a lot of improvising — that was fun. But you have to remember that, even though the rest of the club is dancing, they’re also looking at you. Everybody is sober, but everybody is acting and kind of watching you out of the corner of their eye.

There were kind of embarrassing moments, but then the scene at the end, hopefully, is going to [pay off]. I loved it, [Jackson Jr.] was so fun in that scene. Amazing.

Jackson Jr.: As far as that scene goes, bro, I’ve been to Coachella before. I know what goes down. I’ve been there. I went to USC, bro. You get down.

Thanks to Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. for discussing Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.