The war of the dads gets even more complicated and crowded in the full-length theatrical trailer for Daddy’s Home 2, the sequel to the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg family comedy from Christmas 2015.

Reuniting Wahlberg and Ferrell after the duo proved to be perfect foils in 2010’s summer buddy cop comedy The Other Guys, there was a lot of hope that Daddy’s Home could recreate that magic. Pitting the two against each other in a “Dad vs. Stepdad” battle, the two reassumed the same character types that worked so well in The Other Guys, with Ferrell’s dorky but well-meaning stepdad trying not to get upstaged by Wahlberg’s alpha male beefcake biological father. On paper, this was certainly a recipe for success. It didn’t work out that way, though, as while Daddy’s Home was a quiet but surprisingly sizable hit in a winter movie season dominated by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it was ultimately deemed by many as just another bland and uneventful comedy with a lack of big laughs.

Daddy’s Home 2 is here to give things another shot, taking the typical sequel route by doubling down on the number of dads in the mix. This time around, Wahlberg and Ferrell will have their own fathers around for the holiday season, with Mel Gibson playing Wahlberg’s stern, disapproving father and John Lithgow turning the goofy charm up to 11 as Ferrell’s lovey-dovey daddy. With a brief teaser trailer reintroducing us to the characters and their own fathers being released in June, it was time to get an extended look at the comedy. As an exclusive of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, we’ve now gotten exactly that, with a trailer packed with new jokes and more details about the wacky comedy plot:


Gibson, continuing on the comeback trail from public outbursts that left him exiled by Hollywood for a couple years, seems to be the instigator in all of the chaos, determined to expose Ferrell’s Brad for the doofus wimp that he believes him to be. Hijinks ensue, with Wahlberg and Ferrell slowly turning on each other once again. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, John Cena returns after his surprise cameo at the end of the first film, the even-more alpha male stepfather to one of Wahlberg’s kids. It’s sure to be a rough couple of days for the Whittaker and Mayron family.

It will be shocking if Daddy’s Home 2 even comes close to the $150 million gross that the original took in two holiday seasons ago, as comedy sequels typically experience a major drop-off, plus the winter is especially crowded this year (Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Pitch Perfect 3, etc.). It doesn’t even have the “comedy sequel to surprise breakout hit” to itself, with A Bad Moms Christmas opening a week before it. Still, with so many talented people involved, this has the potential to be a better comedy than the lackluster original. Yes, the trailer is still very heavy on the eye-rolling pratfalls, and a few of the jokes fall flat. Returning director Sean Anders does have a bit of experience with comedy sequels, having directed the mediocre Horrible Bosses 2 in 2014. The hope is that Daddy’s Home 2 takes more advantage of its multiple comedy weapons and really capitalizes on the potential of the Wahlberg-Ferrell partnership.

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