Given that the Indonesian action gem The Raid: Redemption is already being processed and re-purposed into an American remake (for those who only like dudes punching/kicking/stabbing other dudes when those dudes are speaking English), it’s a relief to know that the original series is still pushing forward. If anyone’s going to drive an idea into the ground, it should be the folks who came up with that idea in the first place.
And this first piece of teaser art (courtesy of Twitch) is here to remind us that writer/director Gareth Evans’ second Raid film, The Raid 2: Berandal, will be upon us faster than you can dispatch four men in an elaborately choreographed machete fight. And as a teaser for a martial arts movie, it’s got everything you could possibly ask for. You’ve got a large group of people ready to beat on each other with instruments of death. You’ve got your instruments of death- canes, guns, bats and plenty of sharp objects. You’ve even got a couple of lounge chairs if things get too rough and a character or two needs to call time-out.
The Raid 2: Berandal (which may be the final title, having already cycled through The Raid 2, Berandal and The Raid: Retaliation) will be releasing sometime next year. As next year is almost upon us, expect this first Raid tease to be the tip of a machete-scarred iceberg. Check out the image below.