Back in April, news broke that Paramount and Entertainment One were working on a sequel to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with director André Øvredal set to return. Based on the popular children’s book series from Alvin Schwartz, the 2019 film put the focus on a group of friends who discover a strange book with the ability to bring their greatest fears to life. That first movie gave us big screen renditions of the Pale Lady, spiders, the Toe Monster, Harold the Scarecrow and the Jangly Man, but with three books in Schwartz’s series, all with 20+ stories a piece, the creative possibilities for this sequel are mighty high.

But, given productions are being derailed left and right due to the pandemic, one’s bound to wonder, when are we actually going to see this Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel? While we don’t have a specific release date for you, Øvredal did take a moment to update us on the status of the production during an upcoming episode of Collider’s Witching Hour for the release of his new movie, Mortal. Here’s what he said when asked if Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is moving forward:

“Production-wise we’re in a holding pattern, but not really because we’re just developing the story and the script, which is a time consuming process because there’s no point in making a sequel to that movie unless it’s elevated and it’s great and it’s ideally better than the first movie.”

“I learned so much on Scary Stories, but also about Scary Stories and I do think that we’ll tap even more into [illustrator Stephen] Gammell’s visual world in the sequel than we did in the first movie.”

So that’s where we stand on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel at the moment. We’ll be sure to update you as we get additional information. In the meantime, keep an eye out for our full Witching Hour chat with Øvredal about Mortal, Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and so much more!

via Collider