The youngest of the Abbott family, son Beau is played by young actor Cade Woodward in the first film. In the opening flashback scenes of this second movie, Beau is played by Cade's younger brother Dean Woodward.
On The Big Picture Podcast, John Krasinski stated that he originally did not want to be involved in this sequel, but the producer convinced him to come over and pitch his ideas to the studio. After three weeks, they asked him to write the story, with the idea that directorial duties would be handed over to other filmmakers. Krasinski finally offered to come back as director, jokingly suggesting that he was "Jedi mind tricked into signing on to the sequel."
The film's budget was three times the size of the first film.
After seeing the first film Cillian Murphy said in an interview "I wrote this email to John after watching the first how much I enjoyed the film and congratulating him on it. Then I chickened out and I never sent it! I was like, 'You don't need to be doing that. He's a busy man. He doesn't need to hear from some actor!" One year later he was cast in the sequel.
When he finally decided on an idea, John Krasinski was able to write his first draft screenplay in just three and a half weeks.