“The script was terrific”: The Black Phone author Joe Hill teases promising sequel ahead of October release

The Black Phone's Grabber (Ethan Hawke) is probably somewhere, maybe wearing a neck brace after Finney (Mason Thames) broke it with a phone cord. It wasn't the end of that story, and the Grabber didn't really die, it seems, because a sequel to the film is in active development. The sequel's trailer shows him in a conversation with Finney where he implies that "dead is just a word."

Details around the plot haven't been revealed yet, but it looks like the story is going to be terrific. Joe Hill, writer of the original story, had a chat with Collider recently, where he told them he had read the script. And he said:

"The sequel’s out this October. I haven’t seen the film yet, but the script was terrific, so I’m very excited for that."

He also praised the first movie before this by saying that:

"The Black Phone was such a great picture. Scott and Cargill did such a great job with it."

Scott Derrickson is returning as the film's director, where he also co-wrote the script with C. Robert Cargill. The idea for the sequel was there even before the movie was released in 2022.

This, Scott confirmed with ComicBook days before the film's release, in June 2022. He told them that Joe had pitched him an idea that he liked. He said:

"Joe’s very protective and personal about his material, but he came to me with the idea and I was like, ‘That’s how you do a sequel to Black Phone. That’s terrific."

The Black Phone was a massive success, earning $161 million against its $16–18 million budget. Critics praised it for doing justice to the source material. As of this writing, the film holds an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

What's the update on The Black Phone sequel?

Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, and Madeleine McGraw will return in Black Phone 2. (Image via YouTube/Universal Pictures)

Last we knew, The Black Phone sequel had already wrapped up filming. Scott Derrickson confirmed this in his post on Bluesky. He wrote that:

"Black Phone 2 is wrapped. Couldn’t be more excited about what we’ve shot. More soon."

Then we got a trailer of the film just around a month ago, which gave us hints as to what we can expect from it.

Mason Thames, who was recently seen in the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon, returns for The Black Phone sequel and will be against the Grabber, his enemy number one.

However, it seems like this won't be a usual encounter, as we saw in the first movie. Grabber appears to be a supernatural entity. He even rips off half of his mask, which reveals his partially distorted face. This also indicates that he may have died and is now engaging with the outside world, where Finney still lives after surviving the abduction.

Finney's younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), also returns in the sequel, and it seems like the Grabber is targeting her this time. It is she who has inherited their mother's ability to see things in her dreams.

We even see her locked up in a phone booth where she is being attacked by the Grabber with an axe, who then strangles her in a bloody scene.