Den of Thieves 2: Pantera mostly shows how Donnie's original plan went off brilliantly, but the sequel's lone connection to Ray Merrimen does reveal an issue. The original 2018 Den of Thieves saw Donnie secretly work as the mastermind behind Merrimen and his crew's heist on the Federal Reserve as Big Nick tried to stop them. While Donnie and Nick are back in the sequel with O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler headlining Den of Thieves 2's cast, Merrimen is not part of the equation. That's due to Pablo Schreiber's character dying in Den of Thieves' ending.

With Merrimen out of the picture for the sequel, the story leans into a bromance between Donnie and Nick as they work to rob the World Diamond Center. The film is mostly focused on the heist at hand, but the original heist and crew are still referenced occasionally. This includes the return of Meadow Williams as Holly,...