David Harbour is trading in his Hawkins Police Department uniform for a fluffy red and white suit this holiday season. Portraying Santa Claus in Violent Night, Harbour will find himself battling “a group of mercenaries” that “attack the estate of a wealthy family on Christmas Eve.” This forces jolly old Saint Nick to get physical, as trailers reveal that this particular Santa is not afraid to throw punches at those who stand in Christmas’s way. While the film remains a month away, Harbour and company are gearing up for a festive promotional tour.
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Fandango revealed a new look at Harbour’s Santa Claus earlier today, showcasing Kris Kringle before things get rowdy.
As director Tommy Wirkola revealed last month, Violent Night is heavily inspired by fellow Christmas movie Die Hard (1988).
“Die Hard really had a lot of heart, which is what I wanted to do with this. Like yes, we can go as crazy as we want with the action and the humour and the gore, but it doesn’t work unless we have a heart, and I really want this to feel like a Christmas movie,” Wirkola said. “When people leave the cinema I want them to go out feeling like they saw a great Christmas movie, and hopefully want to see it again next Christmas. That was the goal, so we’ll see if we succeed.”
Speaking about the character arc specifically, Harbour teased that Violent Night will explore sides of Santa that fans may be unfamiliar with.
“The interesting thing about this movie, is that Santa’s journey, we get to see a lot of Santa origin story in a certain way,” Harbour said. “There’s some backstory of Santa that we’re going to get into in the movie about why he’s able to kick so much a–.”
Screenings for Violent Night went down at October’s New York Comic Con, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Critics said they “loved every minute of it,” particularly giving praise to the “epically inventive holiday-themed fight scenes.”
Violent Night hits theaters on December 2nd.
