It wasn’t long after Den of Thieves hit theaters in 2018 that writer/director Christian Gudegast began working on a sequel to the heist movie. Now, seven years later, Big Nick is finally back, hitting the 2025 movie calendar with Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

Gerard Butler injured himself directly before filming Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, making his on-screen pain all the more convincing. The 55-year-old Scottish actor reportedly filmed much of the high-octane heist sequel with one leg completely out of action.

Gerard Butler didn't have the best time filming Den of Thieves 2: Pantera as he shot the movie "with a freshly torn ACL."

Butler's brusque, beady-eyed, scowling-hulk charisma has aged well. A quick-fire actor in a caveman's body, he has the ability to lift a piece of pulp so that it almost seems like a real movie.

The dogged cop and wily thief butt heads again in Christian Gudegast's follow-up to his 2018 heist thriller. Imagine the iconic diner sit-down scene between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Michael Mann’s Heat stretched out to feature length and you’ll get some idea of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

I wasn’t actively writing about movies when Den of Thieves came out in 2018, so it was one I opted to skip at the time. However, I became aware that a bit of a cult following started to grow around the Gerard Butler heist movie,