Released just two weeks ago, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving has already established itself as another big win for the horror genre. In addition to the film earning the best critical response of Roth’s career behind the camera (CinemaBlend’s Mike Reyes delivering a four-star review), its low budget has allowed it to quickly become a box office success. With all this good stuff happening, the following news shouldn’t be much of a surprise: Thanksgiving 2 is now in the works.
Eli Roth announced the sequel himself on his personal Instagram account. He posted a video saying that Thanksgiving 2 is “a go” and that he and co-writer Jeff Rendell are getting set to start working on the movie’s screenplay. You can watch the director express his excitement over the development in the video below:
Unlike some horror franchises of the past that have produced sequels just a single year after hitting box office gold (Scream, Saw, and Paranormal Activity to name a few), Thanksgiving 2 will not be arriving in time for Turkey Day in 2024. Instead, Eli Roth says that he and his co-writer are going to take their time developing a follow-up story. He says that the film will be arriving on the big screen worldwide in 2025, but he doesn’t provide a date more specific than that (he says “probably around Thanksgiving”).
This is notably the second time that a movie based on a “fake” trailer from Grindhouse has developed a sequel. Robert Rodriguez followed-up 2010’s Machete with 2013’s Machete Kills – though the world is still waiting for the promised conclusion of that trilogy: Machete Kills Again… In Space.
SPOILER WARNING: The rest of this article contains spoilers for Thanksgiving. If you have not yet seen the film and don’t wish to know major details about the conclusion, click away now!
Those who have seen the film know that Thanksgiving’s ending most definitely sets up a follow-up story. After the reveal that Sheriff Eric Newlon (Patrick Dempsey) is the serial killer in the John Carver costume, he is taken down by Jessica Wright (Nell Verlaque), but he isn’t killed. He gets engulfed in an explosion, but his body is missing when the smoke literally clears. It’s assumed that he was basically cremated, but the film ends with Jessica having a nightmare about him making a vengeful return.
The video doesn’t mention if Patrick Dempsey or Nell Verlaque will reprise their roles in Thanksgiving 2 let along any of the other actors who saw their characters survive the slayings of John Carver. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming year for the latest updates about the project, including casting news, story details, and dates for the start of production. In the meantime, you can keep track of all of the scary films on the way in the coming weeks and months with our Upcoming Horror Movies guide.