Confirming rumors that did the rounds online earlier this year, Deadline is reporting that a sequel to The Black Phone is officially in development at Universal/Blumhouse, and the entire cast will be back - including Ethan Hawke!
Hawke's demented serial killer, The Grabber, was killed off at the end of the first film when Finney outwitted his captor and beat him senseless with the phone of the title and ultimately using the cord to snap his neck.
So, are we to believe that the villain survived? Not necessarily!
The Grabber appeared to be dead as a doornail at the end of the movie, so we'd say he will most likely return in the form of a ghost, either to taunt Finney, or perhaps even give some advice to his former victim as he faces a new threat.
Mason Thames (How to Train Your Dragon, Incoming) will also reprise the role of Finney, along with supporting players Madeleine McGraw (Toy Story 4, Secrets of Sulphur Springs), Jeremy Davies (Justified) and Miguel Mora. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill will once again write and produce the project, but we don't know if the former will also be returning to the director's chair.
The original, which is based on Joe Hill's short story of the same name, took in over $161 million worldwide, becoming a sleeper hit last year during a summer that was still rebounding from the pandemic.
"I think any horror film that succeeds has that aspect to it, that release of fear," Derrickson said in a 2022 interview with Discussing Film. "For any horror film that does really well, the first thing it has to be is scary and suspenseful, which I think [The Black Phone] is, and audiences have indicated that. But I think the emotional quality of this movie that made it kind of a runaway success and exceed everyone’s expectations, in terms of the business that it did, was the fact that you really come to care about these two kids. You really come to care about the lead actors, and where the movie goes is not a typical dark ending, or a typical sort of victory but then a promise that things are still going to be bad."
"Finney Shaw is a shy but clever 13-year-old boy who's being held in a soundproof basement by a sadistic, masked killer. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer's previous victims -- and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney."