‘Super Troopers 3’ Is Officially Broken Lizard’s Most Ambitious Project in 37 Years

Image via Searchlight Pictures Published Jul 30, 2026, 12:47 PM EDT Sign in to your Collider account Summary Collider's Steven Weintraub talks with Broken Lizard at SDCC 2026 for Super Troopers 3. The creators and stars talk about the importance of getting Super Troopers 3 into theaters, and how they discovered the idea for the latest installment. They also discuss past projects, our live Q&A, and more! It’s hard to believe it was nearly a decade ago we got Super Troopers 2, but the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske) isn’t finished with their beloved, prank-loving squad just yet. After inspiration hit on the set of the 2018 sequel, the guys got to work finding the perfect hook to continue the story, and that’s when the real work began on Super Troopers 3. In the movie, somehow Farva (Heffernan) has wooed Thorny’s (Chandrasekhar) sister, Sarita, played by New Girl’s Hannah Simone, and now the two are forced to face their new brotherhood while forging on with an elaborate wedding. All the while, the troopers are working to get to the bottom of a local drug ring. At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Collider’s Steven Weintraub had the pleasure of sitting down with Broken Lizard to discuss bringing their most ambitious project to the big screen at a time when streaming reigns supreme, and why a theatrical release was so important to them. Don’t miss the full conversation in the video above, where the guys regale us with tales from past projects, characters that have stuck with them through the years, why they aren’t too worried about our upcoming Q&A (that will be broadcast live!), and how they got Super Troopers 3 off the ground. Collider Is Hosting a Live Event for 'Super Troopers 3' The event will be live-streamed for opening day audiences on August 6. COLLIDER: For people who are going to be watching this on August 6th, which is opening night of Super Troopers 3, we're going to be doing a live event together, and it's going to be beamed out for everyone who sees Super Troopers 3 opening night. I think it's 1,400 theaters in North America. Our conversation will be broadcast live. PAUL SOTER: No pressure. STEVE LEMME: I hope we’re funny. KEVIN HEFFERNAN: Yeah, I might get my hair cut for that. It's not easy to pull off one of those live events, so I'm curious, who came up with this idea and what was your reaction? It's hard to pull off, and it's live in front of a ton of people. JAY CHANDRASEKHAR: I just think that the difference in how a movie's sold between now and 2018 is massive. It's all these little podcasts and interviews, shows, and all these things, and things like these live events. They're trying different, interesting ways to get people back into the theaters to watch R-rated comedies. HEFFERNAN: But we've been live performers for years, and we still do stand-up. We like live events. LEMME: We started a sketch comedy group, only performing for, like, 75 people at a time. SOTER: Seven people at a time sometimes. LEMME: But it's actually harder to perform for less people than it is for thousands of people. When you do stand-up, for instance, in front of a room of, like, 3,000 or 4,000 people, you can't even see anybody. You're just out there talking. But if you're going and there's like 20 people in the audience, you're making eye contact with everybody. That's a lot harder, I think. I will never know what that's like, so I will just trust everything you said and agree. LEMME: Trust in me. "We might have beaten 'The Passion of the Christ' if you’d just put in better effort." Exactly. Before I get into some questions, I have a question for each of you. What project scared you the most before saying yes? CHANDRASEKHAR: It's a good question. I think probably The Dukes of Hazzard was scary because there was a lot of car stuff. We've done car stuff before in Super Troopers, but not on the level that it was going to need to be done, and so there were just unknown things happening. Whenever there's an unknown, I get a little nervous. In this movie, we have a little bit of a dance thing. I found that to be a little nerve-wracking. I don't know dance. LEMME: I'll tell you who does know dance: Kevin Heffernan. ERIK STOLHANSKE: What a great segue. LEMME: Who is the dancer in said dance sequence, and he is light on his feet. HEFFERNAN: I was nervous about it. A Bollywood dance number? SOTER: You almost passed on the project, I remember. HEFFERNAN: I did, yeah. I almost did. Then the money got too good. LEMME: But now you know all the Bollywood dance moves, like screwing in the light bulb. HEFFERNAN: Yeah, yeah. I'm so curious what this is going to be like. HEFFERNAN: You'll see! What's the smallest detail you obsessed over for a role? STOLHANSKE: Dancing. HEFFERNAN: Well, see, the joke is that Kevin Heffernan doesn't obsess over details. That's the problem. That’s because the guys make fun of me. When we did Club Dread, I had to do a martial arts thing with swords, and they offered the opportunity to train with a martial artist to get my sword work done, and I was like, “Eh, I don't really want to.” They're like, “Well, it’d be kind of cool.” “Eh, I'm just going to do some of this stuff,” and that's what I did, and it looks dumb, but I did not stress over it. CHANDRASEKHAR: That movie might have done better if you’d put in a little effort. HEFFERNAN: Maybe I should've stressed over it. LEMME: We might have beaten The Passion of the Christ if you’d just put in better effort. HEFFERNAN: My hair in that was something I did stress over, though. I had extensions, like long extensions. Bill Paxton and I went and got our extensions one night at some woman's house, and it was the most terrible experience. Bill and I were sitting next to each other, and this woman was pulling on our hair and putting the extensions in for six hours. Bill was biting a towel and crying while it was going on. That was terrible. Did you ask if she'd ever done it before? HEFFERNAN: It seemed like she knew exactly what she was doing. I didn't know what she was doing, but it worked out. I had luscious, long locks of hair. LEMME: But do you think somebody said to her, “Would you like to go get some formal hair extension training?” and she was like, “Nah, I'll just wing it.” SOTER: “It'll be fine. It's a comedy.” LEMME: Yeah, don't worry about it. HEFFERNAN: Yeah, don't worry about it. If you could swap lives with someone for a week, who would it be and why? CHANDRASEKHAR: You can say me. HEFFERNAN: These are deep questions. LEMME: I would say it would be Jay Chandrasekhar when he was 10 years old, making his mother give him only bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. True story. Uhh, I'll go Mick Jagger, ‘72. Actually, no, let me amend that. I'll go John Travolta, ‘78, right after Grease comes out. I'll take a week of Travolta as Danny Zuko. He had a very fun 10 years. You did? HEFFERNAN: He had a great 10 years. LEMME: He was like [impersonates Travolta], “Oh, man, my movie came out last week, and it's kicking ass!” How's that? CHANDRASEKHAR: Pretty good. Listen, you guys have the skill sets that I will never, ever be able to touch. What role taught you the most about yourself? HEFFERNAN: Oh, man. That's deep. STOLHANSKE: Probably in Club Dread. I learned my darkest secrets about killing other people. HEFFERNAN: Whoa. That you enjoyed it? CHANDRASEKHAR: Your desires? LEMME: How would you rank us in order of who you'd want to kill first? STOLHANSKE: Hmm, let's see. I can't tell you, because then I’d take away the surprise for when I'm going to come. You better not sleep tonight, Steve. Keep one eye open. LEMME: This is why we made him the killer in Club Dread. CHANDRASEKHAR: What was your motivation again, Erik? Why the killer killed? STOLHANSKE: Originally, I thought it was because I got denied that bag of grass, but then I'm like, “Oh, no, no, that's not it.” It was because Dave was given the island, and I thought I was the best employee. HEFFERNAN: Spoiler alert, I guess. STOLHANSKE: If you haven't seen Club Dread. I was just joking about that. I didn't really find any dark instincts on that. I don't know. I guess Rabbit and Super Troopers have been the characters that are the closest to my own character, sort of the earnest guy. So I guess I leaned into that. I don't mind being that earnest, open, nice guy in the group. LEMME: Well, he is that. Erik, I think I remember the first time I saw you dunk Triscuits in water and eat that as a snack. I was like, “This is a wholesome Minnesota boy right here.” STOLHANSKE: I’m just a wholesome Minnesota kid. CHANDRASEKHAR: And yet, he's the only one who started an actual fistfight in this group, and it was with me. HEFFERNAN: Oh, that's right. STOLHANSKE: Did we ever get into a fist fight? It was more of a grapple for a second. HEFFERNAN: We were in Boston promoting Super Troopers 1, and these guys got into a little fisticuffs. STOLHANSKE: Well, it was just more of a playful wrestling amongst friends. HEFFERNAN: Was it? STOLHANSKE: Like in Reservoir Dogs when the two friends wrestle in the scene. LEMME: Ehh, kinda. We were riled up because we went to a club to introduce… STOLHANSKE: We don't need to go into all that. LEMME: But Kevin's parents were there, and the bouncer at the place… STOLHANSKE: We don't need to go into all that. LEMME: Okay, we don't have to tell the story, but let's just say he started it and he ended it. STOLHANSKE: And we're still here today. It was friendly. Why 'Super Troopers 3' Needed To Be in Theaters Jay Chandrasekhar also reveals Broken Lizard's surprising approach to improv in their films. Image via Searchlight Pictures You were able to make a third film, so everything is good. What do audiences misunderstand most about your job? CHANDRASEKHAR: I know the answer. HEFFERNAN: It's not your question. SOTER: No, but I might have to phone a friend here. I don't know. The nice thing it is I think our product looks like we are just friends trying to make each other laugh, and so when people are like, “It looks like what you guys do is just run around making each other laugh,” I'm like, yeah, you nailed it. That is what it is. I mean, it's work, but it's just a lot of us trying to crack each other up. Jay, it sounds like you have an answer. CHANDRASEKHAR: Well, they think that the movies are largely improvised, and they're not. They're written within an inch of their life, and then we improvise a little bit here and there. But it seems like it's being made up. How long ago did you guys decide that you wanted to make the third, and then how hard was it to actually get it off the ground? HEFFERNAN: It was a matter of us coming up with the idea, I think. It was like, if we get another installment, we should have a good premise. And it really came with the premise of we thought it was funny, like, what if Farva was sleeping with your sister? That's the nugget of where it came from. How would you react, and what would you do? Then, if Farva married your sister, what would you do? So, we put this thing with Thorny and Farva, and that was kind of the germ of the idea. Then, of course, with Thorny, it becomes this kind of cultural Indian thing. So we had this big Indian wedding, and then things just started snowballing from there. So I think it was finding that idea that we knew we could tell a funny story, and that allowed us to do the next movie. And then you get into the thing of, like, getting it made and greenlit and all that kind of business, and that's a slower process. It's hard to get theatrical releases these days, and all that business stuff. It's really hard to get a movie made right now, from what I understand. A lot of people tell me the difficulty is extreme, especially getting into movie theaters. It's a little different with streaming. HEFFERNAN: And comedies. Comedies in movie theaters are even harder. And R-rated. Again, everything. Once you guys had the idea, how tough was it to get Searchlight and to get this thing going? CHANDRASEKHAR: You kind of have to manifest it a little bit. You have to just keep saying, “It's theatrical. We're going to bring back theatrical, R-rated comedy.” We'll find out if we do. But you have to get people to believe in the business dream, which is that this can work again. HEFFERNAN: The next thing is Searchlight is a studio that is still very focused on the theatrical. They don't necessarily do a lot of comedies either, but we are kind of in their stable. We've had this long relationship with them, and I think that they trusted that we could put together a comedy that they could put in a theatrical release and make an event out of it. So, hopefully that's what we've done. LEMME: And I think timing is everything too. We pitched them the idea right after Super Troopers 2 had come out and done very well at the box office, so then we hit them with this idea of, “What if Farva was having sex with your sister and everyone else is just delighted about it, ragging on Thorny about it?” The idea is good, the timing is right, and so it's like, yes, let's move forward and write the script and do this movie. CHANDRASEKHAR: The other thing is that streaming is not, at its core, a really capitalist kind of venture. Like, imagine if Backrooms came out on streaming. It'd be like, “Yeah, it's good, it's good,” but all that money would have not been generated in the same way. So I think the people who grew up on the way the film business was, which was like, “Okay, we'll sell it to the planes, we'll sell it to here, we'll sell it to there,” they got back to that idea, which is, like, this is the way to have a business. I can also tell you that on the Collider side, when a movie is in movie theaters, and then it goes to streaming or whatever platform it will be on, there is so much more interest in it once it's been in theaters. If you just come out on streaming, it's very rare for it to penetrate in terms of everyone caring. It's very difficult. SOTER: I was thinking about that the other day, since there were original streaming comedies. Like Palm Springs is the last time that there was a movie that went straight to streaming and then people started talking about it, and it got buzzy, but it just doesn't happen that much. LEMME: I think this year has been incredible with movies like Obsession and Backrooms. For the last 20 years, it seems like the studios have been more reinforced by their big tentpole movies, like, “Oh, this is where we need to focus our attention.” And now you have these movies coming out, and a lot of the A24 movies that are just lower budget and doing incredibly well. Maybe that is going to be the salvation of the lower budget, certainly comedies. HEFFERNAN: But you still have to get over the hurdle of comedies. The comedies are still not there. LEMME: Yeah, but we've had these test screenings of Super Troopers 3, and people are laughing in these packed theaters with 300 people. One of our test screenings, somebody said, “I forgot what it was like to be in a movie theater in a comedy with all these people laughing around me. This is the way it should be seen.” And it's true. Those are the movies we grew up on. Listen, man, I've said this again and again. There's nothing like seeing a movie in a movie theater, number one, but watching a comedy with 300 random people and everyone is howling, it's just an amazing experience. But I actually want to do a follow-up on the test screening process because I'm obsessed with editing, and that's ultimately where it comes together. What did you learn in the test screening process that impacted the finished film? HEFFERNAN: It's really about pacing. I think that's what you learn. Like when we sit there, for us, it's pacing and jokes. So, we liked to sit in the test screenings and feel the audience’s reaction. You can sit there, and you can tell which joke doesn't land. You might think it's the best joke in the movie and then it doesn't land. The audience tells you the truth. So you can go back, and you can fix those jokes. Then just figure out the pacing. You can feel where the movie drags when you test screen, and you can feel where you need to laugh, and I think that's the great thing, is to go back. We've learned over the years to go back into the edit room. What we do is we record the audience, we record the audio of the audience, and we lay it against the movie in the edit room, and you can just watch where the laughs are, and then we can try to tailor it to get rid of those slow points. That's the great part of the test. LEMME: And there's comedy for us that comes from those test screenings, too. I remember in Super Troopers 2, the moderator afterwards asked what movie franchise would you most compare Super Troopers to, and somebody was like, “Star Wars,” and you saw all the Searchlight executives look at each other. I think you paid someone to say that. LEMME: It felt that way. But then they also go through each character, “Tell us about this character. What do you think about this character?” And your heart is in your throat, because sometimes these people are going to be highly critical. HEFFERNAN: A lot of times. I've spoken to some people that say that if you want to know the absolute truth, more than anything, just sit in a stall in the bathroom near the movie theater and people will say exactly what they think because they're in the bathroom. STOLHANSKE: That’s a great way to do it. We should mic that up. HEFFERNAN: That's hysterical. By the way, it's true, though. You're talking to your buddy, “What did you think? Oh, man, it was awesome.” HEFFERNAN: Or, “It sucked!” SOTER: Or, “Oh, I shouldn't have eaten all those burritos.” You'll hear that sometimes in the stall next to you. Super Troopers 3 opens in theaters on August 7. Stay tuned to Collider for more SDCC 2026 coverage. Release Date August 7, 2026 Runtime 104 Minutes Director Jay Chandrasekhar Cast Steve Lemme MacIntyre 'Mac' Womack Erik Stolhanske Robbie 'Rabbit' Roto Writers Jay Chandrasekhar, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme Producers Richard Perello Prequel(s) Super Troopers, Super Troopers 2 Franchise(s) Super Troopers