I think it's fair to say that 2015 action effort Wolf Warrior was an unexpected hit. The Wu Jing / Scott Adkins team up was - and I seriously say this with immense affection - dumb as a bag of hammers and neither Wu nor Adkins were really what could be considered bankable stars in the Chinese market that was its principal target. It featured Wu fighting off a pack of hysterically CGI wolves with his bare hands. It was, however, dumb in exactly the right way, playing straight into populist wish fulfillment for Chinese audiences in a manner that lines up pretty well with how American action films of the 90s approached the audience over here and it went on to be a MASSIVE hit throughout Mainland China.
And so, sequel.
Adkins died in the first one and so to keep up with the American villain structure of the first they've pulled in Frank Grillo as the baddy this time. And based on the just released first trailer they've upped the budget considerably. CGI wolves? No, but there are a trio of actual tanks bashing through an actual wall. And while they're clearly holding back on the hand to hand combat for farther down the promotional line, Wu delivers a universally understandable message to his American foe.
It seems obvious from this that everyone knows EXACTLY what sort of film they're making here and are having an absolute blast doing it. And I, for one, can't wait to see it. Check out the trailer below.