Will The Invisible Man 2 Ever Happen?
Writer-director Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man was a hit, but will we ever see a sequel?
Fright fans have taken to the ferociously original horror flick ever since it became one of the very first major releases to made available for home viewing in the wake of the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. Having taken in the film's freaky story, expert pacing and direction, and stellar lead performance from Elisabeth Moss, those fans have been wondering if Whannell and company intend to continue the story of Moss' Cecilia Kass — and several of the involved parties have spoken publicly about the possibility.
Just to refresh your memory, and please note that major spoilers for The Invisible Man follow: The film's ending sees Cecilia discover that she isn't being plagued by the ghost of her abusive ex, optics expert Adrian, who committed suicide. In fact, the guy never killed himself at all, but devised a plan with his brother Tom to fake his own death. The two have been using an invisibility suit of Adrian's own invention to torment and gaslight Cecilia — but it hasn't exactly worked.
Cecilia is able to deduce their plan, and in the film's final act — after escaping the mental hospital where she was being held, and managing to kill a suit-wearing Tom — she agrees to meet Adrian at his home, ostensibly to discuss reconciling (but while wearing a wire for her police officer buddy James). He discloses enough to constitute an admission that Cecilia isn't crazy, but not enough for James to arrest him, so Cecilia takes action.
Excusing herself to go to the bathroom, she dons one of Adrian's suits and slits his throat, making it appear as if he actually committed suicide this time. She doffs the suit and "frantically" calls the police. After being briefly questioned by James, who sees the suit in her bag, she's released.
Leigh Whannell didn't plan for an Invisible Man sequel
That ending certainly leaves the door open for a sequel, but in a February 2020 interview with CinemaBlend, Whannell insisted that another installment was the furthest thing from his mind. We might have been inclined to scoff, but the director explained his position in pretty convincing fashion.
"I'm so superstitious about movies that I block out any thoughts of the sequel. I figure the time I'm allowed to think about sequels or any continuation of the story is after the original film's come out and the world at large has decided what they make of it," he said. "Because I feel like there'd be nothing more deflating than planning a sequel in your mind, only for the original film to belly flop. And then all of the sudden you're like 'Well, there goes all those plans.' So I try to block it out, squash it down, never think of it. You'll have to ask me that one in a few month's time."
Well, that was a few months ago, and while Whannell has been asked about the possibility in the interim, even during a joint interview with producer Jason Blum on the Fox 5 DC YouTube Channel, he has remained noncommittal. Whannell isn't the only one, however, to field the question,and Blum and Moss have both made some interesting remarks of their own.
Jason Blum and Elisabeth Moss are both interested in doing The Invisible Man 2
As Blum pointed out during that joint interview with Whannell, sequels are no longer seen as the sure thing they used to be by Hollywood executives. Despite its truncated theatrical run, however, The Invisible Man scored an eye-popping $123 million globally at the box office on a meager $7 million budget. It's safe to say that audiences liked what they saw from the picture, and so did critics. Even prior to the flick's opening, Blum admitted that he could totally envision a franchise built around the picture. "I can think of many different sequels we could do to this," Blum told Radio Times. "I'd love to keep going on this vein ... so we'll see."
For her part, Moss is an unapologetic cheerleader for Invisible Man 2. "I would be 100% into continuing to tell that story," Moss gushed in a conversation with Insider in May of this year. "There's definitely something to do there with her. She's got the invisibility suit ... I think there's something to do there."
Obviously, nothing has been set in stone, but we're pretty familiar with how Hollywood works, so we can offer a couple of informed opinions. First, If Blum doesn't start salivating every time he thinks about a potential sequel to the smash hit that was The Invisible Man, then he's not a very good producer (Hint: he is very good). Second, we would go so far as to suggest that the radio silence from Whannell on the topic of a sequel is actually an encouraging sign. If, indeed, the wheels have begun to turn on Invisible Man 2, it would likely be too early for him (or anyone else, for that matter) to officially confirm anything. Conversely, if there were no sequel being considered at this time, somebody — most likely Blum — probably would have said so at some point.
With that in mind, we're going to go ahead and predict that not only will a sequel happen, but it'll probably happen soon. Of course, we'll be keeping an eye out for any announcements, and we'll be sure to keep you informed.