This was Burgess Meredith's last film. He died of complications of Alzheimer's disease on September 9, 1997. He showed symptoms at the time of this movie's filming, and had to be coached during each scene in which he appeared. Meredith's acting talents are evident despite his failing mental faculties.
The eighth pairing out of ten movies of comic actors and great friends Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
Walter Matthau receives first billing in this movie while Jack Lemmon was first billed in Les grincheux (1993). In fact, Matthau's role is more prominent as the plot revolves around his character finding love this time. In most features they did together, Lemmon would usually be first billed.
(Another sequel titled "Grumpiest Old Men" was planned. It was to be filmed in Rome and feature Marcello Mastroianni as Maria's former husband who contests her marriage to Max on the grounds that their divorce was never finalized. The film however was canceled due to Mastroianni's death the following year and the box-office failures of La croisière galère (1997) and Drôle de couple II (1998).)
Donald Petrie who directed the first film, was invited back to direct the sequel, but he decided to take a small break from directing films as his movie Richie Rich (1994) following the original Grumpy Old Men (1993) flopped at the box office. Writer-director John Hughes had previously worked with Walter Matthau in Dennis the Menace (1993) and suggested Howard Deutch to him as director for this movie to replace Petrie. Deutch had directed several films that Hughes scripted such as Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and The Great Outdoors (1988). The producers met with Deutch on Matthau's suggestion from Hughes and he was approved as director.