It’s time to hit the road again! The second season of the delirious Twisted Metal is here! Playing like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) in a road race with The Cannonball Run (1981) and Death Race 2000 (1975) on steroids, the splashy ultra-violent high-octane IP started life as a vehicular combat game on the PlayStation before putting pedal to the metal and hitting the dystopian world of streaming.
Created by the video game writer David Jaffe, Cobra Kai scribe Michael Jonathan Smith, and Rhett Reese, the writer of Zombieland (2009) and all three Deadpool films, this garish adaptation retains the irreverent foul-mouthed zeal of the Ryan Reynolds’s Marvel flicks, the ultra-violent blood-letting of Jesse Eisenberg’s undead theme-park ride and the authenticity gained from having a creative from the original Twisted Metal video game in the writers room.
Brash and in-your-face, this relentless case of car-maggedon takes road rage to the limit. Where the video game was set around a series of demolition derbies, the show builds a world, albeit a desolate one, where rev heads rule.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a large-scale cyber-attack, the show plays like the flipside to the John Carpenter classic Escape from New York (1981). Cities have become walled fortresses protecting the public from the criminals who have now been exiled and live in a lawless area outside the urban perimeters. Only individuals known as milkmen can pass through the walls as they transport goods across the dangerous terrain.
When we first met John Doe (Anthony Mackie, aka Captain America), he was driving across the desolate landscape as a milkman. Events shifted gear when Raven, the leader of New San Francisco (Scream star Neve Campbell) offered John a gig to drive all the way across the country to retrieve a mystery item and bring it back within 10 days. In return? Citizenship to New San Francisco.
His ticking clock mission sees him team up and befriend, eventually, a silent and stubborn car thief nicknamed Quiet (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz) who is dealing with the death of her brother who sacrificed himself so she could survive at the hands of Agent Stone, the hardline leader of a brutal police force played by the stony-faced Thomas Haden Church. She deals with the trauma by not saying a word.
“I was like, ‘oh shit! I forgot that I have to remember lines’,” Beatriz—who lent her voice to Disney’s Encanto (2021) and sass to Jon M. Chu’s colourful adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights (2021) since her stint as a NYC cop—told NME, recalling when Quiet first found her voice.
“Usually that sensation comes when you first step on a set. It’s a bit like doing this motion with my body, like a car stuttering to start. I had two stuttering starts on this show—the first being on set with all these new people, the second was having them all hear my voice on camera.”
The other main protagonist became the most recognisable character in the game and the most memorable villain in the show. With his head constantly aflame, Sweet Tooth is a psychotic serial killer clown who is rampaging through the wasteland in a modified ice cream truck.
Given voice by Arrested Development’s Will Arnett and a physical presence by Joel Seanoa, better known as pro-wrestler Samoa Joe, the clown, in a past life, was a child actor who became known as “Needles” after brutally murdering a golden retriever named Billy with knitting needles during a live taping of his show.
At the end of the last season, John was living his “dream” life safe behind the walls of New San Francisco, Quiet was running with a group of women wearing doll masks led by John’s estranged sister, Sweet Tooth’s head was on fire and Agent Stone had an axe in his face.
As season two kicks off where season one ends, the stakes couldn’t be higher with John Doe and Quiet risking their lives to compete in a deadly demolition derby called the “Twisted Metal” tournament, hosted by Calypso (Anthony Carrigan). Assassins, mercenaries, vigilantes, joyriders, all are welcome. If they win, Calypso will grant the victor a single wish.
That line up of marauding murderous racers means there is a bulging ensemble playing characters behind the wheel, with brilliant names including Tiana Okoye taking on the role of Krista, aka Dollface, aka John Doe’s long-lost sister, Richard de Klerk playing the delightful sounding Mr. Grimm, Saylor Bell Curda as Mayhem, Lisa Gilroy sounding despicable as Vermin, Patty Guggenheim possibly replacing Neve Campbell as Raven, and Michael James Shaw who, at time of writing, has not been given a menacing moniker.
Whoever is left standing, or driving, at the end of this second instalment, Twisted Metal is a hugely entertaining sucker punch. Each snappy episode bristles with exuberant glee as it accelerates at breakneck speed through its rapid-fire scenario.
Mackie was promoting Captain America: Brave New World (2025) he had just wrapped on the sophomore season of Twisted Metal. When The Playlist asked about the show, he replied, “We wrapped yesterday and I’m gonna tell you this—I’m so excited,” he exclaimed. “Listen, if you love season one, season two is going to blow you a new asshole. You can quote me on that. That’s true John Doe fashion. Season two is going to blow you a new asshole.”
If that doesn’t get you watching… nothing will!
