‘Happy Death Day’ Stars Returning for Sequel

One of last year’s biggest horror movie surprises was Happy Death Day, a PG-13 slasher that went on to earn more than $120 million worldwide, despite the absence of an iconic villain or a widely-recognizable cast. Following the film’s success, a sequel will begin shooting in May which brings back stars Jessica Rothe and Israel Brousard from the original film.

In the first film, Tree Gelbman (Rothe) is a blissfully self-centered collegian who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter (Broussard). As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she’s experienced the events of this day before. When a masked killer suddenly takes her life in a brutal attack, she once again magically wakes up in Carter’s dorm room unharmed. Now, the frightened young woman must relive the same day over and over until she figures out who murdered her.

Original director Christopher Landon will return to film the sequel, which is said to begin shooting this month.

When speaking with Collider earlier this year, Rothe teased what she believed to be the plans for the upcoming sequel.

“The sequel, the way [Landon] described it to me, elevates the movie from being a horror movie – and I wouldn’t even say it’s just a horror movie because it’s a horror, comedy, rom-com drama – into a Back to the Future type of genre film where the sequel joins us right from where we left off, it explains a lot of things in the first one that didn’t get explained, and it elevates everything,” Rothe revealed.

She continued, “I was really pleased to know that we weren’t just gonna be pushing all the buttons that people loved the first time, over and over again, ’cause I think that gets old. I’m really excited to see if it comes to fruition and, if it does, what the final product looks like. I hope we get to do it! I had a ball!”

The original film, out now on Blu-ray, initially involved an ending that potentially would have closed the loop on her character, preventing the possibility of a sequel, which can be witnessed on the home video release.

Stay tuned for details on the development of the Happy Death Day sequel.

Are you looking forward to the Happy Death Day follow-up? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Deadline]