A new article published on Variety this afternoon details Lionsgate’s ambitious plans for their relaunch of The Strangers franchise, which kicks off with The Strangers: Chapter 1 in theaters on May 17, 2024. The new movie begins a brand new story that will continue in two subsequent sequels, one expected this coming Fall and the next likely to arrive in early 2025.
All three films were directed by Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master, Deep Blue Sea), with the new trilogy centered on Madelaine Petsch’s Maya, who drives cross-country with her boyfriend Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
The project originally began as one massive script before being split up into three feature films, but could we ever see this new trilogy united once more in one big ass supercut?
Speaking with Variety for the aforementioned piece that went up today, both Lionsgate executive Geobert Abboud and Renny Harlin suggested that idea is being actively explored.
Abboud tells the site when asked about a 4.5 hour Director’s Cut that there is “some version of that we’ve discussed at a high level that we’d like to see at some point.”
Director Renny Harlin chimes in, “It’s in our heads. This is definitely what we want to do. We want to cut together the full arc.”
“We know exactly how to do it, then we’ll create a movie and see who are those diehard fans who will come to the movie theater for four and a half hours,” he adds. “I don’t know if we need to have an intermission so people can get some food and go to the bathroom, but I definitely want to have that event and see if people take four and a half hours of dread and fear and terror and despair.”
The Strangers began in 2008 with Bryan Bertino’s original home invasion horror movie, a terrifying film that introduced three masked killers who returned 10 years later with The Strangers: Prey at Night in 2018. The first film took place in a remote house in the woods while the sequel brought the murderous Man in the Mask, Dollface and Pinup Girl into a trailer park.
