We're never back, folks. This week, Den of Thieves 2 will hit theaters, bringing exciting action and signaling the return of everyone's favorite perpetually hungover cop, Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien, played by Gerard Butler. Continuation of 2018's surprise hit Den of Thieves. In the film, Big Nick goes broke and teams up with master thief Donnie Wilson, played by O'Shea Jackson Jr., to pull off a major diamond heist. For its sequel, writer-director Christian Gudegast upped the scope considerably. While the first film was a cops-and-robbers mess set in Los Angeles, the sequel is headed to Europe for much bigger ratings and leaves plenty of room for more sequels to follow (hell yeah, bring them on).

Interestingly enough, this sequel doesn't just have a simple title. Instead, Den of Thieves 2 is subtitled: "Panther." But why? I think a cynical answer might be "because it sounds cool as hell." Seeing "Panther" probably makes you think of the heavy metal band of the same name. Unfortunately, Den of Thieves 2 doesn't have a subplot about Big Nick getting together with the band to rock out. Instead, there's another reason for the subtitle, though if I'm being honest it feels almost arbitrary and kind of unnecessary.

"Pantera" actually means "panther" and that's where the title comes into play in Maiden of Thieves 2. In Den of Thieves 2, Donnie teams up with a highly skilled gang of jewel thieves who call themselves the Panthers. These characters are actually inspired by the real-life gang of thieves known as the Pink Panthers, inspired by film comedy series of the same name. In Den of Thieves 2, these crooks are so notorious that there is an entire division of the French police force tasked with tracking them down. This division is known as Task Force Panther. So there you have it: that's why Day of the Thieves 2 is subtitled Panther.

However, it must also be noted that the Pantera division plays an incredibly small role in the overall film. At the beginning of the film, Big Nick heads to Europe and meets the policeman who heads the Panther unit, French police chief Hugo Camman (Jassen Zathes Atour). But Hugo is a very minor player here. Without giving away spoilers, I will say that the end of the film reveals that Hugo has been working a bit behind the scenes, but even with this in mind, it's still strange to give the film the subtitle "Panther". I can't help but go back to what I said above: they used this title simply because it sounded cool and didn't put much more thought into it. And you know what? It's okay. The movie still rips.

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is now playing in theaters.