20 Hugely Unexpected Roles In Upcoming Movies
16. Kathy Bates (Bad Santa 2)
The Role: Bates will play Sunny Soke, the foul-mouthed mother to the titular Santa himself, Billy Bob Thornton's Willie T. Soke.
Why It's Unexpected: Bates isn't exactly a stranger to comedy, but it's still somewhat jarring for her to end up in a Bad Santa sequel, especially considering that she's only seven years older than the man she's supposedly playing mother to.
Will It Work?: There's currently no information on whether Bates is merely playing Sunny in a flashback sequence or not (as the casting does list a young Willie), but Bates can do boisterous and obnoxious with the best of them, so it's hard to imagine her screwing it up, no matter how good or bad the script is.
After all, who can forget how awesome she was in The Waterboy as Adam Sandler's mother?