UPDATED: According to , the deal is done! Both Mel Gibson and John Lithgow have joined the cast of Daddy’s Home 2. The will portray the fathers of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell’s characters (no word on who is who’s daddy), who arrived for Christmas and have their own ideas about how their grandchildren should be reared. Hilarity will, no doubt, ensue.
is reporting that Mel Gibson and John Lithgow are circling Paramount’s Daddy’s Home 2. The sequel to the 2014 comedy hit is set to begin production in Boston in March and casting is currently underway. Both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are returning to star in the follow-up, with screenwriter John Morris and writer/director Sean Anders back as well. Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Kevin Messick will once again production through their company, Gary Sanchez Productions.
Both Gibson and Lithgow are riding high from awards season. The former has had his film, Hacksaw Ridge, nominated for a bunch of awards, including a few Oscars. The latter actually just received a SAG award for his work as Winston Churchill on Netflix’s “The Crown“. Both would be great gets for the project, which will have a fast turnaround from production to meet its expected November 10th, 2017 release date.
Will they go for it? Probably. There’s no word as to what their roles might be, but the conventional opinion making the rounds is that they will be portraying the fathers of Wahlberg and Ferrell’s characters. Neither actor is a stranger to comedy, but I’m hard pressed to think of a mainstream chuckler they either has had anything more than a supporting role in for years now. Gibson in particular is clawing his way back up out of a blacklist hole that he dug himself into over a decade ago with his very public personal problems. Critics have responded well to Hacksaw Ridge, so if he truly intends on rehabilitating his image, doing a funny film of this type would go a long way towards accomplishing that. Gibson is also rumored to be in the running to play Cable in Fox’s Deadpool 2, which is shooting this summer. Should the actor do one or both projects, his comeback might finally be fully realized by this time next year.
