Happy Death Day Star Has Glimmer of Hope for Third Film

It's been five years since the release of Happy Death Day 2U, which included a post-credits tease that the horror-comedy was only just getting started, and while there haven't been any substantial updates about ever getting a third film, star Jessica Rothe recently addressed the trilogy and it's a more optimistic update than we've been given recently. The actor explained that it was ultimately up to studios Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions to come together to make the project happen, and while there's no concrete plan for such a project, the fact that Rothe didn't outright dismiss the notion entirely is somewhat promising.

"Well, I can say [writer/director] Chris Landon has the whole thing figured out," Rothe confirmed to Screen Geek. "We just need to wait for Blumhouse and Universal to get their ducks in a row. But my fingers are so crossed. I think Tree [Gelbman] deserves her third and final chapter to bring that incredible character and franchise to a close or a new beginning."

With the second film in the series taking place almost immediately after the first, there was more motivation for the production to move forward as quickly as possible. Given that the overall franchise plays in the world of time travel, Landon previously noted that his plans for a third film don't have an expiration date.

"I have a whole movie! It's not even an idea. I pitched the entire movie to [Universal] and they loved it," Landon confirmed to IndieWire in 2023. "That was the funny part. They were like, 'Oh, my God, that's so unexpected and so cool.' It's not dependent, it's not set in the same day as the previous films, so it could be made now, or in two years or three years. It would still work. But the trickier thing, too, and in fairness to them, it's a bigger idea than the previous two films, so it would be a more expensive movie."

In the original movie, Rothe's Tree is murdered on her birthday, only to wake up that morning and relive the day's experiences. While she tries tweaking her daily activities to try to uncover who her killer is, she ends up dying countless times. In the sequel, she discovers that a nearby scientific experiment had gone haywire, which ignited the timeloop.

Stay tuned for possible updates on Happy Death Day 3.

Are you hoping we get to see the trilogy completed? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!