DreamWorks' "The Bad Guys" has been called a breath of fresh air for the studio.
Filled with great characters, fun action and spectacular animation, there's a lot to love
about "The Bad Guys". It's safe to say that we wouldn't mind seeing this gang again, and that's
certainly a possibility. DreamWorks is known for its film franchises as well as its TV shows,
and there are plenty of plots from the Bad Guys graphic novels to choose from too,
so there's a pretty good chance that we could get a follow-up.
So we have to wonder, what sort of plots could we expect from a Bad Guys sequel?
I'm Caleb with WickedBinge, and this is The Bad Guys: Sequel Ideas.
Major spoilers ahead for the first movie and for some of the Bad Guys graphic novels.
The first sequel idea on our list is a fairly obvious one: The Bad Guys become heroes.
This scenario comes from an article on CBR.com. The writer of the article points out how the
ending of the first film heavily alludes to this being a possibility- with the Bad Guys being let
out of jail for good behavior and get picked up by Diane, who is essentially a secret vigilante
along with being the governor. The writer of the article also points out that, given the
Bad Guys have a deep knowledge of how criminals think, they'd likely be the perfect squad to help
solve what the cops can't. Given that its two main heists were highlights of the first film,
we would love to see these guys pull counter heists for good. After all, they have the skills,
so why waste them? Furthermore, you could make the heists even bigger in a sequel. The first
film take place in LA, but imagine the Bad Guys going to a place like New York, Las Vegas or even
somewhere in Europe. You could also involve more characters - whether they be allies and enemies.
And speaking of which, seeing the Bad Guys face off against Badder Bad Guys could be just as
exciting to see. Dealing with a more dangerous gang could certainly raise the stakes and make
for some interesting parallels. Just imagine Wolf going head to head with another leader who's
just as clever or Snake dealing with someone just as sneaky. There's also the possibility of this
badder gang having history with the Bad Guys and thus seeing the now Good Guys as sellouts, making
the conflict all the more personal. Overall, we have to say that we absolutely love this idea,
as it not only has plenty of potential, but it also just seems like a lot of fun.
For a similar idea, we turn to the graphic novels to find this little plot: the Bad Guys join The
International League of Heroes. Yes, you heard that right. In the books, the Bad Guys not only
become heroes but secret agents as well through the International League of Heroes. Given how
much the two genres overlap, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see this heist genre spoof
also become part Spy Movie spoof - even if the latter genre is a bit overdone. The great thing
about this idea is that the filmmakers would have to add in new animal characters, making for a fun
mix of new designs and personalities for the cast. If they were to include characters from the books,
this potential sequel could include characters like Agent Kitty Kat, who is a martial artist
that uses katanas, Agent Hogwild, who is a motorcyclist along with being an agent,
and Agent Doom, a hacker and biochemist with a bit of an emo attitude. While yes, a spy plot
would be a bit cliche and perhaps a bit too much like "Despicable Me 2" with its whole sideplot,
it would still probably make for a good time. So, we have to say that we like this idea.
Moving onto the opposite side of the spectrum where The Bad Guys go Bad Again. This is
another idea from the CBR.com article, and the writer lists a couple of different ways this
idea could go down. The first option is pretty straightforward: being bad is more fun AND as
Wolf says going good won't guarantee acceptance, so they decide to go back to bad. As the article
writer says, this could be a "statement against their haters" while also giving the film a chance
to introduce new cops and other hunters -- both animal and human -- to track and bring them down.
While we're sure that this idea would be fun enough, we don't really like the fact that it
would essentially undercut one of the first film’s main messages: to do good not just because it's
right or because you’ll get rewarded, but because it just feels good too. We also can't imagine Wolf
wanting to go bad again after making it clear that he was tired of being feared and hated.
Really, the only way we could see a scenario like this working is if they did something similar to
"Shrek Forever After" where the gang may start to miss the fun parts of being a criminal only
to be reminded of all that they have gained by going good. The other way this plot could happen,
according to the writer of the article, could be if the Bad Guys are blackmailed and forced into
doing heists and other criminal activities. The writer compared it to the Night Fox plotline from
Ocean's Twelve. This would make the most sense for Diane specifically, since she would want to
protect her position as governor, which would then lead to the Bad Guys wanting to help her out of
that risky situation by any means necessary. This alternate take on the idea certainly makes a lot
more sense, and would be our preferred method if the writers of the film decided to briefly
turn the Bad Guys back into criminals instead of focusing on their potential heroics. But
even if Dreamworks went with the latter, we would still have mixed feelings on this sort of plot.
Moving onto what would most likely be a sideplot, a potential "Bad Guys" sequel could have a large
section of the story focus on Shark, Piranha or Tarantula. As many reviewers have pointed out,
the main focus of the first film is on Wolf, Snake, and to a lesser extent Diane and Marmalade,
leading the other three members of the gang with not much to do. They're essentially like the
members of the Furious Five that AREN'T Tigress from "Kung Fu Panda" - having moments to shine,
but not much actual character development. While it's pretty likely that any sequel would still
focus heavily on Wolf and Snake, a side-plot that allows one of the other Bad Guys to get some
spotlight could be cool to see. Now to be fair, a side-character subplot is easier said than done.
One look at films like "Shrek the Third" or the Ice Age series to see what happens when a subplot
is written badly. Still, with how endearing Shark, Piranha and Tarantula all are, getting some extra
time with any of them would still be pretty enjoyable. As such, we really like this idea.
Looking at what could be another small subplot, we have the establishing of Wolf and Diane’s
romantic relationship. Unlike the books, where Mr. Wolf’s feelings towards Agent Fox weren’t
really reciprocated, Mr. Wolf and Governor Diane Foxington definitely had some chemistry. Even if
there was no big kiss, a relationship between the two of them seems like the logical next step with
how well they work as a team. But for as much as we love these two, we still have Mixed Feelings
on the idea of this romantic subplot. Outside of Shrek and a couple other minor instances,
Dreamworks isn’t known for its romance stories like Disney is. We’d also hate to see an awesome
character like Diane be reduced to just being Wolf’s girlfriend. We also wouldn’t really be
a fan of seeing Snake being all jealous of their relationship like he was in the books.
We’re here for laughs and heist shenanigans, after all, not love triangle drama.
For our final sideplot possibility, this next idea on our list is all about Snake specifically going
bad. Not the rest of the Bad Guys, just Snake. Turning to the Bad Guys graphic novels, we see
that the book version of Mr. Snake took a lot longer to start going good, frequently relapsing
into Bad guy tendencies and not believing that he could be good. We even see in book #11,
"Dawn of the Underlord" that Snake ends up getting temporarily corrupted by supernatural means,
leading to him wanting to corrupt the other members of the gang. Yeahhh, the books are much
more wild than the movie was. Still, putting the corruption arc stuff aside, we could potentially
still see this plot line happening. After all, Snake was the one who had the hardest time
believing that the Bad Guys could go good, and if the sequel film's big bad had the ability to get
under Snake's skin and pick at his insecurities OR if they could drive a wedge between him and Wolf,
it's likely that Snake would struggle a lot and probably fall back into old habits,
leading to his friends to try and bring him back to the side of good.
The downside of this idea is that it could not only undercut Snake's arc from the first film,
but it could also feel repetitive. In other words, this is one of those plots that sounds like it
could be dramatic and potentially enjoyable on paper but would be totally dependent on
the execution. All in all, we have to say that we dislike this idea, not having much faith
that it could be pulled off without feeling at least a little contrived or frustrating.
For our final sequel idea, we're ending things off with a bang: the return of a transformed
Marmalade. Now, villains returning for a sequel after being defeated are nothing new,
but this return comes with a HUGE twist - which is Marmalade being revealed to be an alien with
a goal of invading Earth in order to prove himself to his species. Yep, this is yet another element
from the books that contrasts from its somewhat more down to Earth counterpart. Funnily enough,
according to storyboarder Adam Rosette, the film's crew nearly included this reveal but ended up
cutting it because they felt it would be too weird and out of nowhere. This is true, but if they
had an entire film to develop an alien invasion plotline instead of having it be a surprise twist,
it COULD work. On the other hand, as fun as seeing the Bad Guys battling aliens up in space could be,
we'd hate for a dense plotline to take away from the elements that made the first film so enjoyable
- that being the characters and their development. This is another idea we have Mixed feelings on,
as it really would depend on the execution. But whether we get a whole ton of aliens in
the next Bad Guys or just one, we're sure that we haven't seen the last of Professor Marmalade.
But let us know in the comment section what you guys think and what ideas you would want
to see in a Bad Guys sequel. And hey, tell us what we should cover next! Remember to
hit that notification bell and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!