Written by Matt Grobar, Deadline
20th Century Studios has shared the first trailer for Vacation Friends 2, the sequel to its hit 2021 buddy comedy, which saw Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji become Vacation Friends with Meredith Hagner and John Cena.
In the second installment, picking up after the passage of a few months, newly married couple Marcus (Howery) and Emily (Orji) invite their uninhibited besties Ron (Cena) and Kyla (Hagner), who are also newly married and have a baby, to join them for a vacation when Marcus lands an all-expenses-paid trip to a Caribbean resort. His reason for traveling there in the first place is to meet with the owners of the resort to bid on a construction contract for a hotel they own in Chicago. But when Kyla’s incarcerated father Reese (Steve Buscemi) is released from San Quentin and shows up at the resort unannounced at the worst possible moment, things get out of control, upending Marcus’ best laid plans and turning the vacation friends’ perfect trip into total chaos.
The original film, which held the record for Hulu’s biggest opening weekend prior to the debut of Prey, watched as an uptight couple (Howery, Orji) made friends with a rowdy couple (Cena, Hagner) while on vacation in Mexico, seeing their friendship takes an awkward turn when they got back home. Clay Tarver directed from his script co-written by Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, with Todd Garner and Timothy M. Bourne producing, and Steve Pink and Sean Robins serving as exec producers.
Picking up a few months after the end of Vacation Friends, the sequel finds newly married couple Marcus (Howery) and Emily (Orji) inviting their uninhibited besties Ron (Cena) and Kyla (Hagner), who are also newly married and have a baby, to join them for a vacation when Marcus lands an all-expenses-paid trip to a Caribbean resort. His reason for traveling there in the first place is to meet with the owners of the resort to bid on a construction contract for a hotel they own in Chicago. But when Kyla’s incarcerated father Reese (Steve Buscemi) is released from San Quentin and shows up at the resort unannounced at the worst possible moment, things get out of control, upending Marcus’ best laid plans and turning the vacation friends’ perfect trip into total chaos.
Tarver returned to direct Vacation Friends 2, with Carlos Santos, Ronny Chieng and Jamie Hector rounding out the cast as new co-stars. Garner and Stuart Besser served as producers on the sequel.
Director of Photography: Tim Suhrstedt, ASC
