Even though his 2018 film A Quiet Place was a hit, writer/director John Krasinski was less than enthused at the idea of a sequel. The first film followed the Abbott family as they survive mysterious monsters that hunt by sound. Krasinski thought that the Abbott family’s story had come to an end. However, in a recent interview with EW star of the film Emily Blunt and Krasinski explain how A Quiet Place Part II came to life.
According to the husband and wife team, neither felt a sequel was necessary. In fact Paramount began meeting with different filmmakers to expand the universe. Krasinski explains that he originally saw it as a way to squeeze fans for more money. “I totally understood why the studio wanted to do a sequel for financial reasons. I didn’t want anything to do with it because, weirdly, as much as I’m the writer-director, I’m also a huge fan of this movie,” Krasksini explained. “I didn’t want to be a part of anything that would be viewed as a cash grab.”
So, how did the studio convince him to return to the story? Krasinski jokes that he was “Jedi-mindtricked” when producers asked him to write an outline. After that his outline grew into a full blown story and Blunt says, “it became very apparent that we’d be idiots not to do it.”
Krasinski added, “ultimately, you will never catch the [same] lightning in the film, but there is a bigger world. [In] sequels you have a hero or villain that you have to bring back and put in a new world. Well, the converse is true for us. We have this amazing world that you can put any hero or villain in.”
A Bigger World
The world is about to get bigger for the Abbott family as the matriarch of the family must lead them into the unknown. In the first teaser trailer, the family leaves the safety of their path and destroyed home. The monsters are still around every corner and now they will encounter more dangerous creatures, other survivors. Which Krasinski alluded to in the first installment. “Even not knowing there would be a sequel, I just thought we have to let people know that there are other people alive,” he said.
The latest teaser for A Quiet Place Part II features a flashback sequence that follows the family, including Krasinski, which (spoiler!) met his end in Part I. Blunt says that with the flashback, “you really get a sense of what the world was and what the family was before it all happened.”
New Faces
Returning in A Quiet Place Part II as the Abbott children are Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds. Joining them are newcomers Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy). Krasinski explains that he wanted to see how different survival can look. “[Our] family has support, they have an entire system of living, and most importantly, they have love. If you are alone and you’ve seen the negative effect of the world, you lose hope.”
But for Blunt, she likes focusing on the theme of ‘how far would you go to extend your hand to your neighbor?’ “I think that fractured sense of community that we’re probably feeling on quite a global scale now is quite nice to talk about.”
As the release date draws closer Krasinski says he is currently dealing with anxiety about fan reaction. “I hope people think the movie is as good as I think it is,” he says, “because I had the same anxieties that [the fans] did when I heard they were making a sequel: ‘Why are they doing that?’ Hopefully I answered that question.”
You can check out the latest teaser below. A Quiet Place Part II comes to theaters everywhere March 20. Be sure to follow ScaryNerd for more of all things horror!
