Renfield Director Weighs in on Status of Follow-Up Films

Back in 2017, Universal Pictures aimed to kick off a new franchise of Universal Monster reboots with The Mummy, but that approach stagnated after that debut installment. Instead, the studio found more success with reimaginings of iconic figures, which includes Renfield, an adventure that explored Dracula’s faithful servant. While the movie earned mixed reactions from audiences and critics, director Chris McKay teased that there might be plans in store for a possible continuation of the narrative. Whether those ideas will ever come to a fruition is yet to be seen, as it will likely depend on how the film performs in the home video market.

“There are choices that we made to suggest that there’s a world of vampire hunters out there,” McKay revealed to SYFY WIRE. “It would not be a huge leap to suggest that Van Helsing would [still] be out there.”

Fans have seen Dracula on film dozens of times, but with Nicolas Cage bringing the Prince of Darkness to life for this version of the story, it was Cage’s performance that was arguably the standout component. Even if the vampire might have been defeated by the end of the movie, McKay also detailed how it would be possible for the character to return.

“Renfield’s going to cement those bits with holy water and then spread them out presumably around the world,” McKay explained of the film’s finale. “But inside each of those cells, Dracula is still alive, and may eventually come back together.”

The concept came from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who previously teased the possibility of expanding the world.

“I think there’s a lot of potential there,” Kirkman shared with ComicBook.com earlier this year. “I’ve been saying I’m a comic book writer, so that’s kind of how my mind works. I’m always thinking about where the story goes next, where the next issue is how you pay off the cliffhanger. I certainly have ideas. There’s a lot of opportunity to expand different explorations of different characters that are in Renfield and also the larger world that Renfield takes place in. We’ll just have to see if the movie does well enough to justify it.”

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of Renfield.

Would you like to see the film get another entry? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!