Road House returns! Guy Ritchie set to direct with Jake Gyllenhaal back on board

Guy Ritchie will direct the sequel to Road House, with Jake Gyllenhaal set to reprise his role as ex-UFC fighter Dalton.

The first film which came out in 2024 follows ex fighter Dalton (Gyllenhaal) as he takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys road house after the owner finds him sleeping in his car nearby. He gets entangled in the dark underworld of organised crime gangs, bikers, fights, crocodiles, and unexpected romance. It even starred real-life MMA champ Conor McGregor in his first acting role, as Knox — a psychopathic enforcer for Crime Boss Brandt.

The franchise is based on the original story by David Lee Henry and the first film was released in 1989 starring Patrick Swayze.

Road House 2 marks the third collaboration between Ritchie and Gyllenhaal, their second overall for Amazon MGM studios. The two previously teamed up on The Covenant - Ritchie’s 2023 action war film. They are also collaborating on the upcoming action thriller In the Grey, co-starring Henry Cavill and Eiza Gonzalez.

Will Beall is writing the script and the confirmed producers so far are Charles Roven and Alex Gartner from Atlas Entertainment. Gyllenhaal will also be producing for Nine Stories Productions - a company he co-founded in 2015 alongside Riva Marker. Ivan Atkinson will executive produce.

Amazon MGM announced the sequel was in development last summer following the success of the 2024 reboot of the original film. The first film launched on Prime Video last March, breaking records for the streaming platform, with 80 million views worldwide.

Ritchie is one of the most successful figures in cinematic history, with smash hits including Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Gentleman (which even received a spin off TV series from the original film), his debut Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and his most recent release MobLand which is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Guy Ritchie steps in for director Doug Liman, who according to Deadline, is not returning owing to a fallout with Amazon. According to Liman, the film was originally created for cinema release only, but the platform decided to exclusively stream it on Prime Video instead.

There is no word yet on the sequel’s release date, although if you need your UFC-crime-thriller-Gyllanhaal fix, you can stream the first film on Prime Video.

• Dexter: Resurrection's first episodes have just been teased

Main image credit: Prime Video