This looks awful
The first was a pretty fun kiddy horror movie. But not having Jack Black back is a big negative
His name is Slappy & he is a ventriloquist dummy, not a doll. There is a difference. Also, not having a big name actor is not going to hurt this. Those big name actors were nobody's until the right movie/tv show made them a big name. Let the newbie's have their moment.Black will still be voicing the doll, but yeah, not having a name-actor appear in live-action will probably hurt this.
Like with a few sequel situations, the movie had multiple scripts- some that included Jack Black, some that did not.not having Jack Black is weird but they probably had a good reason, besides he might show up in a cameo, we dont know.