You might not know it, but for three years now, Norwegian monster movie Troll has towered over the competition at Netflix and, to this day, remains the streamer’s most-watched non-English language movie ever, with 103 million views globally. The Norse saga continues with Troll 2 – aptly named as the monster–sized sequel sees two trolls square off across the rugged Norwegian landscape.
“I hadn’t planned [to do] a sequel,” director and co-writer Roar Uthaug (2018’s Tomb Raider) tells GamesRadar+. “During the editing of the first one, ideas started coming to me on how to continue this saga, and also broaden it and expand on it. So then I got really excited.”
Go big or go home
Uthaug made a name in his native Norway with well-crafted survival and disaster stories – most notably, 2015’s The Wave. After the experience of making Tomb Raider in 2018 starring Alicia Vikander, he returned to his homeland with a mission: to put a Norwegian spin on the monster movie. A genre with global appeal going back to King Kong and the Toho Godzilla movies, Uthaug attributes the record-breaking success of the first film to Troll’s fresh approach to a beloved genre.
“It’s a well-known formula; the monster movie is something that people enjoy all over the world. But then Troll, I think, has a setting that people aren’t used to seeing. It’s not like Tokyo or New York being destroyed, and, also, there’s a creature that’s new. Although from a Norwegian perspective, they’re a huge part of our folklore and culture. But I think, out in the world, they represent something exotic.”
If you’ve seen the first film, you’ll know that Troll’s titular titans are ancient creatures of rock and stone and dirt, or “nature coming to life”, as Uthaug puts it. In both films, the theme of nature fighting back against a civilisation that has blighted the land is about as subtle as a 10-storey-tall Troll taking a stroll through Tromsø. But Troll 2’s new aggressor, Jotun, is a much more dangerous adversary than the first film’s more misunderstood beastie.
“We wanted to make the troll feel very different than the troll in the first movie, right?” Uthaug explains. “We knew we wanted to have him be more of a predator, so we looked at wolves and other predatory animals, and tried to get his final form looking very intimidating.”
Double trouble
Without going into specifics, Jotun isn’t the only Troll this time around. As the marketing materials released so far reveal, a Troll vs. Troll showdown is very much on the cards – inspired by the many kaiju battles in the Toho Godzilla movies, according to Uthaug. Troll 2 also continues the first film’s streak of irreverent humor, with Jotun memorably snacking on twentysomething revellers at a ski lodge rave in one of Troll 2’s more entertaining sequences.
“We looked at the map of Norway. We knew where we wanted to start him, and that’s where we wanted to end the movie. And then we saw, ‘Oh, that famous place for skiers in Norway is directly on that path.’ It’s also famous for bratty kids from Oslo going there more than skiing [laughs]. And we thought it could be a fun way to show people being eaten by trolls, but without us feeling too sorry for them!”
The question is, if Troll 2 is as big a hit as the first film, could a threequel be on the cards? The sequel certainly leaves the door open for more. “I will see… but I do have some ideas,” Uthaug says with a smile. Big things are coming…
Troll 2 streams on Netflix from December 1. For more, check out our list of the best Netfix movies to watch this week.