Will there be ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2?’

The Strangers was a sleeper hit in 2008. The critical reception was mixed, but the premise of three people invading a home and terrorizing a couple for seemingly no particular reason struck a cord with audiences. It grossed $82 million and has developed a reputation as a cult classic for horror fans. As with most successful horror titles, The Strangers has been dug back up and given a fresh coat of paint.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 is now in theaters, and there’s been some confusion about how the film connects to the original. The title implies a prequel of sorts, but Renny Harlin, the director of the film, claimed that it is a reboot of the original, and therefore has no shared continuity. Because it is not setting up a film we’ve already seen, the question invariably becomes: will there be a sequel? Are we looking at the start of a brand new franchise, just with the title and basic premise of a film that’s almost two decades old? Here’s what you need to know.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 is slated for release in 2024

Yes, The Strangers: Chapter 2 is very much a thing. So much of a thing, in fact, that there are plans to release the film in the same calendar year as Chapter 1. This was only made possible through a grueling production schedule in which director Renny Harlin shot both chapters at the same time. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but one Harlin felt would further the connectivity between films.

The director admitted to the difficulties of shooting horror films concurrently during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

It’s a huge undertaking, and it’s really challenging because you have to keep the arc of [the] movies in your head. And as we all know, you never shoot movies in chronological order. So you have to figure out how the story develops visually, how the characters change, where they are emotionally at.

As these comments imply, characters from The Strangers: Chapter 1 will carry over to Chapter 2. The specifics have been kept under wraps, but those who have seen the first film (spoilers) know that Maya (Madelaine Petsch) survives her harrowing home invasion. Her boyfriend Ryan, played by Froy Gutierrez, is not so fortunate.

The trilogy will conclude with The Strangers: Chapter 3

Not only will there be a Chapter 2, but The Strangers reboot will be a full trilogy. And yes, Harlin shot the third film at the same time as the first time, meaning he knocked out an entire trilogy in the span of 52 days. The director told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to capture feeling of being gradually worn down by the titular invaders, which is why the trilogy spans only five days in the life of Maya’s character.

“It’s one continuous story that covers five days in the life of the protagonist played by Madelaine Petsch,” he revealed. “She is basically the Liv Tyler character from the original movie. So, in this case, we see that she survives, and just when she thinks she’s going to be okay, things get worse, because the Strangers, the perpetrators, just won’t give up.”

Petsch sat down for a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, and she assured fans that the second and third chapters will deviate significantly from chapter one. The Strangers: Chapter 1 was meant to be an homage and a riff on the original film, but part of the appeal of doing a trilogy was taking the premise and pushing it into new territory.

“I was sent a 290-page script that we broke up in three chapters,” the former Riverdale star noted. “So if you look at it as an abnormally long film, it feels as usual as any other project you do, and that’s the mindset I tried to have… It becomes more of a character study, mentally, emotionally, and physically.”