With Thanksgiving 2 already in “soft prep,” slated to start production at the end of March next year, director Eli Roth has teased that the sequel to the hit slasher movie will be on a whole new level.
The screenplay for Thanksgiving 2 has already been written, with the production set to commence in March 2025. Both Roth and Thanksgiving screenwriter Jeff Rendell returned to write the script for the follow-up movie, with the former directing once again.
What did Eli Roth say about Thanksgiving 2?
In an interview with IndieWire, the director — known for his work in Cabin Fever, the Hostel franchise, The Green Inferno, and Borderlands — said that he’s treating the second movie as if it’d be his last. While Roth aims to outdo himself in Thanksgiving 2, he also plans to do it with a lower budget, similar to the first one. The first film garnered over $40 million at the global box office against a $15 million project.
“We’re upping the ante but we are not going to do it with more money. That keeps it tight and lean and mean and forces us to make decisions. There’s a lot of setting up that we did in the first one that we don’t have to deal with now. It can just be all pay-off,” said Roth.
Roth also teased that the second movie will feature a “no bulls–t” chase scene similar to the 1995 horror thriller Mute Witness and Kathleen’s (played by Karen Cliche) pitchfork scene from the first movie.
“I’ve come up with stuff that is going to be a challenge. And I want it to be a challenge to pull off. Because if I’ve come up with the stuff that I think will make the best kills, then I’m going to do it like I’m never going to make another movie again,” Roth added.
He continued, “It really was a reminder of the deep satisfaction I get just knowing there is a Thanksgiving movie out there and that people enjoy it and that people are now watching the old slasher films because of it. I feel like we have a new tradition. And that’s all you want to do is leave your mark — good or bad — on pop culture. Eventually, no one is going to remember. The only thing that will be left is the movies.”
Thanksgiving was a long-overdue project for Roth, which started as a fake movie trailer for 2007’s Grindhouse. It wasn’t until 2023 that the movie received a feature-length expansion. It followed Plymouth, Massachusetts’ axe-wielding killer, who terrorizes the survivors — as well as those involved — to a Black Friday riot that turned into a gruesome tragedy.
The 2023 slasher film starred Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, Gabriel Davenport, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, and Patrick Dempsey, among others.
Thanksgiving 2 is scheduled to premiere sometime in 2025.
