Gerard Butler returns in his most disgusting role: First trailer for the hotly anticipated action sequel Criminal Squad 2

2024 was a rough year because we had to spend it without a new Gerard Butler film. Now there is good news for the butler-heads out there. The Scottish action star is working hard to ensure that we will be provided with butler content over the next 24 months. He will appear in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, experience the end of the world (again?) in Greenland: Migration and prove himself in Julian Schnabel’s drama In the Hand of Dante.

But you don’t have to wait long until the next butler assignment. In January, the sequel to one of his action highlights startedIn Criminal Squad 2 he has to prevent a robbery of a diamond exchange and the first trailer shows how much gets broken in the process.

Check out the first trailer for Criminal Squad 2 here:

This is how the plot continues in Criminal Squad 2

In Criminal Squad, Butler played one of his most disgusting roles. As a cop who munches on the donuts of recently deceased people at the crime scene, Suspected torture and walks over dead bodies, his character was morally indistinguishable from the robbers he hunts in the first part. In the finale of this film, the inconspicuous Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr. from Straight Outta Compton) turned out to be the mastermind of the robbery, who already has his sights set on the next heist: a diamond exchange.

The official synopsis of Criminal Squad 2 follows:

In Criminal Squad 2, Big Nick (Butler) is back on the hunt in Europe. He is getting closer and closer to Donnie (Jackson), who is drawn into the treacherous and unpredictable world of diamond thieves and infamous Panther Mafia as they plan a massive robbery on the largest diamond exchange in the world.

Why Criminal Squad enjoys such a good reputation

At first glance, Criminal Squad looks like a clone of Heat or To Live and Die in LA, which also seems to be the prevailing verdict in US reviews of the 2018 film.

However, Christian Gudegast’s action film features an excellent cast including Butler and Pablo Schreiber. Between expertly staged shootouts and heists, the two fight a duel of opposites. Here the sleazy cop, there the disciplined robber who leads his gang like a company on a distant battlefield. Only the war takes place in the middle of Los Angeles. Neither of them serves as a role model, which is what distinguishes Criminal Squad from Heat, for example. You watch these people as they blow themselves and their surroundings to pieces, disgusted and fascinated at the same time.

Criminal Squad 2 is coming January 9, 2025 in German cinemas. Gudegast is also on board as writer and director for the sequel.