2011’s The Cabin in the Woods is often ranked up there with the best comedy-horrors for its Scream-like deconstructive take on the tropes of the genre. Despite its critical acclaim and cult popularity, however, there’s never been a follow-up to it in the years since, even though it’s been known that the filmmakers were interested in doing a sequel.
While speaking to Fandango recently, director Drew Goddard revealed the reason why there hasn’t been a Cabin in the Woods 2 as yet. And it isn’t just a lack of free time, as Goddard has gone on to be involved with such movies as The Martian and the upcoming X-Force and screenwriter Joss Whedon is… well, Joss Whedon. It’s actually for the reason that they could never find a good enough story to make a second movie purposeful.
“We had some crazy ideas but Joss [Whedon] and I both felt strongly that we didn’t want to do it just to do it. Right? I’m very lucky that I get to keep making movies, I don’t need to just go make a sequel for the sake of making a sequel. The only way we could do it is if we could do it justice, and the truth is, it’s a hard one to do justice to. Every version of continuing the story undercuts the ending that we had in Cabin, and I just feel like that continues to be the perfect ending for that movie and I never want to undercut it.”
If you’ve seen the film, you’ll know exactly what Goddard means about the ending. As you’ll recall, Kristen Connolly and Fran Kranz’s characters discover that the murders in the cabin are an ancient ritual sacrifice that have to happen to keep a world-eating colossal monster at bay. When they survive, the ritual’s broken and the monster claws up from the center of the Earth to destroy the planet. The last shot is its enormous hand rising up from the ground. Basically, it wasn’t your typical franchise-baiting cliffhanger.
Given that, it probably is for the best that Goddard and Whedon have decided that one movie’s enough. That said, the director hasn’t ruled out the chances of a sequel ever happening.
“I mean, look, I never say never, either. I’ve learned, tomorrow, that a bolt of lightning could strike and you could think of an idea that does the first one justice, but I haven’t quite had that idea yet, I haven’t had the idea yet that makes me go, ‘Oh, we have to drop everything and do that now.'”
Though there’s no Cabin in the Woods 2 as yet, you can at least see Goddard teaming up with Chris Hemsworth once again for his latest movie, Bad Times at the El Royale, which arrives in theaters on October 12th.
