While we await the imminent release of horror outing The Black Phone, star Ethan Hawke is already looking to the future, with the actor backing a sequel should director Scott Derrickson choose to return. Speaking with Comicbook.com, Hawke stated that he would be on board with The Black Phone 2, so long as the follow-up was made for the right reasons.
"If Scott was involved, yeah. I'm never interested in ... Sometimes sequels feel borne out of a storyteller's necessity to continue talking to you. And sometimes they feel borne out of a desire to make money off of the same poster again. So I want to be the first, there's a difference."
Should The Black Phone lead to a sequel and more, it would be one of several horror franchises kicked off by Ethan Hawke following both The Purge and the Sinister series. Clearly, Hawke is not interested in reprising the role of child kidnapper "The Grabber" unless the right idea comes along. And it seems that such an idea may already be taking shape...
The Black Phone Director Scott Derrickson Has Already Said That He Would Love to Return
Good news for Ethan Hawke! The Black Phone director Scott Derrickson has already stated that he would be interested in further exploring the world created in the first movie. The filmmaker has also revealed that Joe Hill, the writer behind The Black Phone, has already come to him with a potential idea for a sequel.
"Joe Hill pitched me a wonderful idea for a sequel to Black Phone that, if this movie does well, I'm gonna do it. He's got a great idea, I really liked it," Derrickson shared recently. "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.'"
So, while we wait to be terrified by the events of the first The Black Phone, all the pieces seem to be falling into place for a new horror franchise with Ethan Hawke’s The Grabber at its center.
The Black Phone follows Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy who is abducted by a sadistic, masked killer known as The Grabber. Now held in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use, Finney must quickly find a way to escape this seemingly inescapable dilemma. When a disconnected phone on the wall starts to ring, he soon discovers that he can hear the voices of the murderer's previous victims -- and they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn't happen to Finney.
The Black Phone stars four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke in the most terrifying role of his career as The Grabber, and introduces Mason Thames in his first-ever big-screen role as Finney. Directed by Scott Derrickson, written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, and produced by Jason Blum, The Black Phone is an adaptation of the 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill.
The Black Phone is scheduled to be released on June 24, 2022, by Universal Pictures, and has so far been met with rave reviews.