THE BLACK PHONE Director Scott Derrickson Says He Won't Make a Sequel Without Ethan Hawke

Director Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone was a great horror movie! The film was an adaptation of the short story by Joe Hill, and it’s not hard to see that the world in the story is filled with other opportunities to tell stories set in the past, present, and future

Derrickson is open to making a sequel, but if he does, that sequel has to bring Ethan Hawke back at The Grabber. The first movie centers on a shy but clever 13-year-old boy named Finney who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.

When asked about the possibility of a sequel to this story in an interview with CB, Derrickson said: "It's possible. It's not a definite thing, but if it does become definite, you'll be the first to hear." He went on to say, "I can tell you this much, I wouldn't make a Black Phone sequel without Ethan. I don't think there'd be any point in doing that."

There have actually been talks of a sequel, and in regards to that, Hill said: "There have been some really, really good conversations about a sequel. And the thing is, as soon as I saw the mask, which was designed by Tom Savini and Jason Baker, as soon as I saw the mask I thought, 'If this film is a hit, there'll be a sequel,' because the mask is so iconic. It is like Freddy Krueger's glove, it is like Michael Myers' mask, it is this thing where it's the imagery, iconic imagery, that haunts people's sleep. And, look, in horror, guys like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, and Frankenstein, and Dracula, none of these guys stay buried. They all claw their way out of the grave for a sequel and then a threequel." 

He continued, "There have been talks about how to do a sequel that wouldn't suck. How to do a sequel that doesn't cheapen the film that came before, that's still scary, that's still intense, that feels organic. And those conversations have been pretty good. But if I were to provide any details, Scott and [writer C. Robert] Cargill would lock me in the basement in the film, and that's it. And the phone doesn't work. As you know, the phone doesn't work. I can't call anyone to get out. So I would decline to offer any real granular details about the possible sequel."

Derrickson also talked about a sequel in a past interview, saying: "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. 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, it sounds like there’s a good chance a sequel to The Black Phone will happen. I’m curious to know what the story will be considering Finney epically killed The Grabber at the end of the movie.