Though Paramount and Platinum Dunes had originally set Friday the 13th for release in October of 2017, the spooky corridor ultimately belonged to another horror title: Happy Death Day.
Blumhouse and Christopher Landon’s sleeper hit pulled the best bits from films like Groundhog Day and Scream and wrapped them all up in a very entertaining package – even if the final product proved to be a bit too familiar for some. Still, Happy Death Day exceeded all expectations at the box office, bringing in over $100 million on a production budget of just $4.8 million. Not bad, right?
That’s an impressive turnaround in and of itself, and to no surprise, it means that we’re now getting a sequel. Yes, Happy Death Day 2 is on the way and today, Blumhouse handed the project both an official title and release date. For starters, they revealed that from here on out, it’ll be referred to as Happy Death Day 2U. Not only that, but fans can look forward to seeing Tree again on the big screen next Valentine’s Day, with the sequel set for a February 14th, 2019 release.
Aside from Jessica Rothe (Tree), Israel Broussard will also return as Carter Davis, Tree’s boyfriend. Meanwhile, Ruby Modine reprises her role as Lori Spengler with Suraj Sharma and Sarah Yarkin also starring. Plot details remain thin on the ground, but speaking to Collider a while back, here’s what Rothe teased:
“The sequel, the way he described it to me, elevates the movie from being a horror movie. And I wouldn’t even say it’s just a horror movie because it’s a horror, comedy, rom-com drama – into a Back to the Future type of genre film where the sequel joins us right from where we left off, it explains a lot of things in the first one that didn’t get explained, and it elevates everything.”
Unfortunately, we don’t have much more to go on other than that, but now that Blumhouse has given the pic a title and release date, we imagine that production on Happy Death Day 2U will start picking up steam. And as soon as further updates roll in, we’ll be sure to let you know.