As shared in a sit-down with ScreenRant, Happy Death Day star Jessica Rothe has confirmed that a third film in the horror series is underway, following the first instalment in 2017 and the second in 2019, with director Christopher Landon having the next follow-up “figured out.”
The first Happy Death Day is a black-comedy slasher horror film from Landon (writer of Paranormal Activity 2 and 3, director of Paranormal Activity 4), who adapted a script by Scott Lobdell (DC Comics’s Red Hood and the Outlaws). It starred Rothe as a spoiled and self-centred college student called Tree who becomes trapped in a time loop of repeating her birthday every day. If that wasn’t bad enough, Tree is hunted down and murdered by a baby-masked serial killer at the end of every day and must discover their identity and motive.
Happy Death Day received mixed reviews (positive for Rothe’s performance yet mixed for the overload of genres), yet managed to secure a $125.5 million worldwide gross from its initial $4.8 million budget. It was promptly followed by 2019’s Happy Death Day 2U, with Landon writing and directing, which merged a more sci-fi element to override the horror slasher ones from the original. In the sequel, Tree lands in another time loop and bands together with some friends to stop it.
A third film was confirmed last year.
Talking to Screen Rant, Rothe shared: “I think that is the power of zeitgeist. I think the more we ask, and the more we put it into the universe, it will happen. Because the truth is, Chris Landon, our brilliant, fearless writer/director, he has the whole third one figured out.”
“And I’m sure he also has his version of the MCU, but the ‘ChrisCU’ with Freaky and Happy Death Day, and We Have a Ghost and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, they all could totally live in the same universe,” the actress added. “That’s the crossover that I need right now in my life.”
Cracking a joke about the formula many classic horror franchises are now taking with legacy sequels and characters, the star concluded: “I think at this point, it’s just logistics, and all I’ll say to you and the fans is, whether it’s next year or when I’m 65, pulling a Jamie Lee Curtis coming back for Halloween, I will be there to finish Tree’s story. So, it’s just a matter of when they get all their ducks in a row.”
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