Happy Death Day 2 is officially happening. Blumhouse Productions is moving forward with the horror sequel and has announced the first casting details, with production slated to begin this month. Given the success that the first movie enjoyed, it was expected that a sequel was all but guaranteed and it had even been discussed publicly by some of the cast, but now it's official. With filming getting underway on May 10, we should expect to see Happy Death Day 2 in theaters in 2019, but a release date has yet to be officially announced.

We previously reported that the sequel would begin production in May, but the production date is a few days earlier than expected. Jessica Rothe, who served as the protagonist of the first Happy Death Day, returns for the sequel alongside Israel Broussard, who will also be reprising his role. New cast members include Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), who is reportedly going to be playing Samar Ghosh. The character is described as a science enthusiast geek that enjoys coding. Sarah Yarkin (American Horror Story) is also on board and her character, Dre Morgan, is also a science geek and Samar's partner in crime. Dre is described as a tom-boy.

Director Christopher Landon is returning to helm Happy Death Day 2. Blumhouse Productions had a lot of success with the first movie, which brought in $123 million worldwide, working from a comparatively tiny $4.8 million budget. That means the movie was rather profitable and it's no surprise that studio head Jason Blum would want to keep the core pieces of the creative team in place this time around. There's no word on who penned the screenplay for the sequel, but Scott Lobdell is the sole credited screenwriter on the first movie and it stands to reason he would have been tapped to write the follow-up.

The first Happy Death Day was like a horror movie version of Groundhog Day, with Tree (Jessica Rothe) getting killed over and over again and re-living the same day every time she gets killed until she can figure out how to stop this mysterious murderer. While no official synopsis has been released, Rothe has described the sequel has a Back to the Future style sequel that will pick up where the first movie left off. It's also said that the sequel will answer some open-ended questions about the nature of the time loop.

Blumhouse has become one of Hollywood's most reliable hit makers in recent years, having produced such massive successes as Paranormal Activity and The Purge, as well as critically beloved movies like Get Out and Split. When they find something works, they're typically quick to franchise it and Happy Death Day is no different. With filming getting underway shortly, we should hopefully be learning some more official details on Happy Death Day 2 in the near future. We'll be sure to keep you up to date as more details on the project are made available. This news comes to us courtesy of Deadline.