How John Krasinski & Emily Blunt Could Become Hollywood's Next Horror Superstars

In a world full of explosive superhero and action franchise, no one could have guessed that moviegoers would be clamoring for a sequel to a mostly silent horror film. And yet, the call for A Quiet Place sequel is already rising, despite the fact that it isn't necessarily your obvious pick for a new horror franchise. The movie, about a family trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with monsters that hunt via sound, stars two of the biggest movie stars of the new millennium — married couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, the latter of whom also directed and worked on the screenplay — but other than star power, there isn't much that screams next big Hollywood trilogy.

Unlike popular horror franchises such as Saw or The Conjuring, the horror in A Quiet Place isn't really dependent on a simple, constrained conceit. There is no villain, as there is in the Saw films, the evil threat isn't contained in a specific area, and the main protagonists aren't professional crime fighters. Should fans demand a sequel to A Quiet Place, it would be difficult to go the usual horror sequel route — putting new protagonists under the same threat or moving the protagonists to a new location. Part of the reason the movie works (and likely a large contributing factor to its potential box office success) is the pairing of Krasinski and Blunt, who are making their onscreen debut as a couple. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. The first question to ask before any speculation on what a potential movie sequel would look like is: are people working on a sequel in the first place?

Despite a stellar score on Rotten Tomatoes and an overwhelming amount of positive buzz following the film's SXSW debut, it doesn't sound like any of the filmmakers behind the movie are currently working on a sequel. Both Krasinski and Blunt have major projects on the horizon — Krasinski with Amazon's Jack Ryan original series and Blunt with Disney's Mary Poppins Returns. Both which will require massive press tours and are likely part of multi-season/movie contracts. Meanwhile, writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who conceived of A Quiet Place years ago, are already working on post production for their next project, Haunt, a haunted house movie they wrote and directed. Granted, the studio could produce sequels without the original filmmakers involved, but on a movie like A Quiet Place, one that heavily depended on the writers and director, this idea would be questionable.

It's worth noting that neither Krasinski nor Beck and Woods have publicly dismissed the possibility of a sequel to A Quiet Place. That said, Beck and Woods have made it clear that they enjoy working on original material. "A Quiet Place was an original idea in a marketplace saturated by so many things based on IP and so our focus is always writing original material," Beck said in an interview with Horror Geek Life. Given Beck and Woods' aversion to recycled material, it doesn't sound like they'd be jumping at the chance to write a Quiet Place sequel. But t's one thing to say you're only interested in original material in theory; it's quite another when you're asked to write a sequel to your own movie.

Should A Quiet Place never get a sequel, fans can always pretend that it's part of a larger franchise. Prior to the film's release, rumors started going around film fans that A Quiet Place was actually the next Cloverfield movie. The theory gained steam after a fan posted a video explaining how the two could be related online. The fan theory video was deleted, according to Movieweb, a move that only added fuel to the fire. But, other than the video's sudden disappearance, there really is no evidence to support the theory that A Quiet Place is a Cloverfield movie. Still, if you love A Quiet Place and can't wait to hear definitive news on a possible sequel, you can always pretend it's part of the larger, science fiction universe.