Happy Death Day 3 is finally “moving forward,” according to star Jessica Rothe! She broke the good news on Saturday night at American Cinematheque, where fans congregated for a double-feature screening of Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U. Director Christopher Landon was on hand to confirm that work on the long-awaited threequel is underway, though there’s still no word on when we might get to see it for ourselves. It’s been six years since this light-hearted slasher series saw a new entry, and fans have been dying for more. It’s hard to say if previously rumored ideas for the third installment will be followed through now, or fall by the wayside.
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“The third movie is moving forward,” Rothe told the crowd on Saturday, while Landon confirmed “It is moving forward.” Happy Death Day was a hit on its own in 2017, and its set-up for a sequel could have been written off as a part of its dark comedy and genre commentary. However, after Happy Death Day 2U broke the premise wide open in 2019, fans have been even more eager for a follow-up, and the cast and crew have been as well.
“I would love if we had the opportunity to complete the trilogy,” Rothe told an interviewer from ComingSoon.net back in 2020. “I know that Chris has it all mapped out in his genius brain, but I also know that we only want to complete it if we get to do it right. I think it’s just a question of seeing if the opportunity for that exists in the world.”
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Even then, Rothe seemed to know that a third installment was not imminent. She suggested that they might have to “pull a Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween, and Tree comes back as a badass 50-year-old.” She said she would be happy to go that route — whatever it takes to get the movie made.
As for Landon, he mentioned in 2020 that he wanted to call the third installment Happy Death Day to Us, and that it would be “different than the other two films.” At the same time, Universal and Blumhouse reportedly considered creating the sequel as a streaming-exclusive miniseries on Peacock rather than a movie. That would have had three parts, but it looks like that’s not the plan anymore.
Happy Death Day takes the time-loop set-up of movies like Groundhog Day into the slasher genre. Rothe plays a jaded sorority girl named Tree Gelbman who finds herself trapped reliving her own birthday over and over again, knowing that she will be murdered that night no matter what she does. The sequel adds a sci-fi spin to this premise, which leads nicely into the potential for a sequel, and perhaps an ongoing franchise.
While Rothe and Landon confirmed that the threequel is “moving forward,” we don’t know where it is in the production process and can’t guess when we might see it for ourselves. In the meantime, Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U are both available to rent or purchase digitally on PVOD stores. They have also been released on DVD and Blu-ray.
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