Outside of star-studded Hollywood blockbusters, it’s impossible to guess which Netflix movies are going to break out from the pack and become overnight sensations, and there can’t have been many people out there expecting Troll to break records.
After all, the fairly unassuming Norwegian creature feature wasn’t hyped up or heralded as a classic in the making, even if it did win plenty of critical acclaim by way of an 89 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And yet, it ended up absolutely decimating the viewership charts for weeks on end, to the extent it finished its first 28 days on the platform as the single most-watched non-English original film in Netflix history.
In fact, the only surprising thing about Variety confirming a sequel is in active development is the fact it took so long, with Troll premiering on Dec. 1 of last year. The gang will be getting back together, then, although plot details are unsurprisingly nonexistent at such an early stage, even if the ending of the first installment did leave the door wide open for even more carnage to emerge from the deepest, darkest, depths of the mountains.
Of course, it would be easy to throw more trolls into the mix and call it a day, but now that the expectations are higher than anyone could have expected based on its status as a record-breaker and top-tier in-house exclusive in terms of nothing but the numbers, maybe returning director Roar Uthaug will be looking to upend the norms to avoid second film syndrome.