Warning: SPOILERS for The Christmas Chronicles are in play. If you haven’t seen either of the two films in the series, you may want to check yourself twice before proceeding.
Looking back on the movie ending cameo that saw Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles introducing Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus, it feels like that decision was a pretty easy door for a sequel. So by the time The Christmas Chronicles 2 came to be, the further usage of Mrs. Claus in co-writer/director Chris Columbus’ big holiday follow-up was another one of those decisions that felt extremely natural. As it turns out, the road to Goldie Hawn’s character becoming a very important part of the future of The Christmas Chronicles 2 came from that big moment in the first film, which was hatched in part by Kurt Russell.
During the press day for The Christmas Chronicles 2, I had the honor to attend the festivities on behalf of CinemaBlend. Part of those honors saw me speaking with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, as they sat in front of their fireplace, ready to talk holiday magic. In conversation with these two legendary stars, there was a big game plan that was revealed for The Christmas Chronicles franchise, and it came from Russell’s discussions with Chris Columbus while making the 2018 original. If any sort of future was to be had, Mrs. Claus was the key to making it all happen, as revealed in the following remarks:
Hawn: You guys talked about even beyond… you’ve got so many amazing ideas.Russell: We’ve probably got, I would say 15 things in our heads. But Mrs. Claus was the first big step into that.
Just like that, Goldie Hawn was included at the very end of 2018’s The Christmas Chronicles, in a scene that wrapped the entire film with a nice Christmas-themed bow. While Mrs. Claus was mentioned in the film, she isn’t present until the very end, as she’s seen returning to the North Pole after some sort of trip. Confirming that Santa had taken Kate Pierce’s tape chronicling the events of that fateful holiday, Ms. Hawn’s cameo, as seen below, is the sort of surprise that gets an audience amped for a potential sequel.
Re-watching that moment, it works perfectly as a window into something that could become a holiday tradition for the Netflix family. According to Kurt Russell, that plan was firmly in both his mind and Chris Columbus' when they included it in The Christmas Chronicles. However, for as much as The Christmas Chronicles 2 naturally integrates Mrs. Claus as an important figure in the North Pole operation, Goldie Hawn wasn’t initially aware of the greater part she would play in the series mythology. She revealed as much in the following remarks:
Hawn: It was a one-off. I had no idea. I mean, it just was that way.Russell: It was a one-off for her, it wasn’t for me. Chris [Columbus] and I, halfway through the first movie, were already laying down things; because we both felt it was going very well, and that there was something here. And we began to talk specifically about things that we needed to do in the first one, if we did do future ones.
As you can see, for a film that surprised everyone as a streaming blockbuster success upon its arrival, there was already a lot of plotting that was at work to make The Christmas Chronicles 2 a truly worth sequel. And with the film’s recent release confirming that Netflix could have a new holiday tradition on its hands, it only makes the fact that Kurt Russell and Chris Columbus have dreamed up several elements to keep the party going.
If Goldie Hawn’s Mrs. Claus is only the beginning of what we could see in the further progression of what The Christmas Chronicles saga holds, whatever remaining aspects are still hiding in the shadows must be pretty big deals. We’ll just have to wait and see how the reception to Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles 2 plays out, as the film is now playing on a streaming queue near you. In the meantime, keep it tuned here to CinemaBlend for more coverage pertaining to The Christmas Chronicles 2, and the magic that it’s ready to spread throughout the holidays.
