Conor McGregor will apparently not be returning for the upcoming Road House sequel, but several other mixed martial arts stars have joined the cast.
Per a report by Deadline, Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler have both joined the cast, and will appear alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Road House 2. In addition, Michael “Venom” Page, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Tyron Woodley, and kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven are all onboard. Former UFC fighter Jay Hieron will return, reprising his role as Jax “Jetway” Harris from the 2024 film, a remake of the Patrick Swayze original.
McGregor portrayed Knox, chief antagonist to Gyllenhaal’s Elwood Dalton in the initial installment. The Knox character does survive the climax of the movie, as shown while the credits roll. It seems McGregor might be too busy to return, however, as the fighter targets a comeback at next year’s UFC White House card.
Road House 2 falls under the Amazon MGM Studios banner, and will shoot in the U.K., Malta, and Savannah, Georgia, per Deadline’s report. The original film drew in 80 million viewers during its first eight weeks of release on Amazon’s Prime Video platform.
Ilya Naishuller replaces Doug Liman in the director’s chair. Plot details for the sequel are being kept under wraps; the 2024 film found Gyllenhaal as Dalton, a former UFC fighter, working as a bouncer in a dive bar in the Florida keys. He winds up drawn into a hostile takeover of Road House, the bar, with a local crime lord trying to buy up the property.
Woodley has previously appeared in Olympus Has Fallen, Escape Plan 2, and the Netflix series Cobra Kai, among others. Poirier will be making his acting debut, while Chandler has one film credit to his name, the little-known horror flick Be Afraid.
