You're Next Writer Confirms There Were Never Plans for a Sequel
Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett have become major forces in the world of genre [...]
Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett have become major forces in the world of genre filmmaking, with the pair currently working on a Face/Off sequel and an adaptation of ThunderCats, though their upcoming opportunities are largely thanks to their previous efforts in the world of independent horror. Their home-invasion slasher You're Next drew immense praise on the film festival circuit, with its passionate following of fans hoping to somehow return to that world in some sort of continuation. However, Barrett recently confirmed that, despite how passionate fans are about the film, there were never any plans to continue it in any capacity, based largely on its underwhelming reception by general audiences. Barrett's latest film, Seance, is currently in theaters, On Demand, and on Digital HD.
"We're hoping to work with [actor] Sharni [Vinson] again soon on something, so maybe we'll call her character Erin in that film and people can try to figure out what her intervening decade must have been," Barrett shared with The Hollywood Reporter. "The full answer is, after You're Next sold but before it was released in theaters — which was a two-year process due to some corporate changes at Lionsgate at that time — we talked a bit about making a sequel if the film was successful. I think we had some cool ideas, but like with The Guest, You're Next was never originally intended to have a sequel. We were excited to make one if there was any interest, but I never actually wrote anything down. Adam and I just bounced some ideas around, and then when the movie flopped, I was glad I hadn't done any actual work."
You're Next ultimately took in $26.8 million worldwide, though it sports 79% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Their follow-up film, The Guest, similarly underwhelmed at the box office, despite sitting at 91% positive reviews.
Barrett has confirmed, however, that there are plans in the works to make a follow-up to The Guest, but it won't be a movie or anything else fans might expect.
"I can give you a very concrete answer to that question, which is, we are doing something related to The Guest," Barrett confirmed with ComicBook.com. "And it is concretely happening, but it is not a feature film or a comic book, because I think that's what people would expect us to do. And I think that's the thing that no one actually wants us to do, because I think if we actually made a feature film version of The Guest 2, or realistically, the graphic novel version would just be a cheaper version of trying to achieve kind of the same thing narratively. I think that could only disappoint people at this juncture, because people have to remember that the same weird, quasi-original artistic sensibility that caused me to write The Guest in the first place would continue to guide me with a Guest sequel."
He continued, "So I would likely do something perverse, and just have Dan's character be the successful owner of a local hardware store and the entire story is just about him dealing with a difficult supplier, but in a totally legal and healthy way, because he's totally grown as a person. And so, in a sense, I think Seance was trying to be the slightly more optimistic version of the same narrative that You're Next and The Guest somewhat explored with their characters. So, we're never going to do just like, The Guest 2. Because I just don't think... The Guest was just never meant to have a sequel like that. However, at this point, enough people have asked us about it, that of course, inevitably Adam and I have had enough conversations about what we would hypothetically do, that we've now developed a bunch of ideas that we've become very attached to, because we think they're actually good."
Stay tuned for details on Barrett and Wingard's future projects. Seance is in theaters, On Demand, and on Digital HD now.
Would you have liked a sequel to You're Next? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!