A Quiet Place Part 2: Everything we know about the haunting sequel

Don't make a sound: Filmmaker and actor John Krasinski announced on Sept. 25 that he's wrapped filming on A Quiet Place Part 2, the sequel to his chilling 2018 horror film, A Quiet Place, where murderous monsters kill anything that makes noise.

Krasinski tweeted a photo of himself with wife and Quiet Place star Emily Blunt, walking hand in hand on the iconic bridge from the first movie. "Well... that's a wrap on Part II!" he wrote. "See you on March 20th!"

Krasinski wasn't sure he wanted to make a sequel, telling The New York Times in January that, "I don't want A Quiet Place to turn into an action movie where 400 people have machine guns." He praised Paramount for not jumping on lame plot ideas that seemed more franchise-oriented, and he only agreed to sign on once he came up with the right concept. He's not revealing too much, but calls the plot a "tiny idea that fit that world and could be exciting."

Sure, some horror-movie sequels are dreadful. (Did we really need a Blair Witch 2? A Psycho IV?) But with Krasinkski steering the ship, and with what he's revealed about his careful curation of plot ideas, A Quiet Place Part 2 could be the terrifying exception. (Read: A Quiet Place 2 en español.)

The basics

(Warning: Spoilers for the first film ahead.) 

Krasinski is back directing and writing, though probably not acting this time around. His character, Lee Abbott, the father of the family in the film, appears to have sacrificed himself to the aliens in the first film. Of course, it's always possible he could appear in flashback. 

His real-life wife, Emily Blunt, returns as Evelyn, Lee's wife, and young actors Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe return as two of their kids. Teen actress Simmonds is deaf, as is her character, which adds complexity to the world of silence they all must live in.

Release date, production info

Filmmaking began in July 2019, sharing a photo of the film slate marking the beginning of shooting. And as we now know from Krasinski's wrap tweet, filming ended around Sept. 25.

According to MovieWeb, the movie was shot in western New York state, mostly in the small village of Akron outside of Buffalo, with some scenes shot in Chautauqua County, Dutchess County for two days, and Ulster County. That's generally where the first film was shot, which makes sense -- the family has no way to get very far from home without making deadly noise.

The film is scheduled to hit theaters on March 20, moved up two months from the original May 2020 date that was announced.

Cast: Who's who?

• Emily Blunt as Evelyn Abbott
• Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott
• Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott
• Cillian Murphy in an unknown role
• Brian Tyree Henry in an unknown role
• Barbara Singer as old woman in store
• Okieriete Onaodowan as a policeman
• Wayne Duvall as Roger

Plot news, rumors and theories

More survivors

As is obvious from the new names on the cast list, more characters will be coping with the monsters in the sequel. Krasinski hinted at a wider population of survivors when he spoke about the film on The Big Picture podcast. 

"It's the idea that the rest of the world is going through this exact same experience," Krasinski said, according to Screen Rant. "Are there other people that have to survive like this? It's that idea of living through the set of circumstances, not again in the same way obviously, but exploring it more. You only got to do it intimately for a small amount of time, so what happens next?"

Oh, baby

In the first film, Evelyn (almost silently!) gives birth to a baby. Babies cry. They make noise. Even as toddlers, they don't always understand how vital it is to keep silent in a world where any sound could lead to bloody death. The Abbotts had a very complicated system for their baby's arrival, including oxygen masks and soundproof boxes, but it will be disturbing and interesting to see what other elements they must use to keep a tiny child silent.

Monster mash

The monsters in A Quiet Place appeared only in flashes for most of the movie, which helped build the horror. When they finally appeared, they were creepy, mummified looking things who'd evolved not to need eyes, and who appear to hate sound because it physically hurts them. We'll likely see and hear more from them in the second film.

Not a sequel, but a series

Filmmakers often cringe to hear a second film being called a sequel. Blunt told her husband that this isn't one, but instead to think of it as "the second book in a series," and he agreed. "It sounds [like] semantics but it's true, it really is," he said in that same Big Picture podcast interview. "You're not doing anything that's like, 'All right, I'm gonna take all the things you love and just kinda repeat them but in a different way.' It's not A Quieter Place, it's sort of an exploration of getting to live in the circumstances, and that's really fun."

How did the monsters take over?

We're assuming the second film will take place shortly after the first movie, but if interest in the series keeps up, maybe we'll one day see a prequel, showing how the monster invasion happens. (Some saved newspaper headlines in the first film give a few clues, but we don't know much.) In an interview with MTV International, Blunt told an interviewer that Krasinski is actually very interested in a prequel, showing how the world got to its current apocalyptic state.

This post was originally published on Aug. 11 and will be updated as new information becomes available.