If you were hoping to spend your 2025 holiday season dodging a hatchet-wielding pilgrim, I’ve got some bad news. Despite TriStar greenlighting Thanksgiving 2 just two weeks after the first film killed it at the box office in 2023, the sequel is hitting some serious speed bumps.
Why the Delay? (Blame the Busy Schedules)
It turns out that when you cast rising stars, they tend to get… busy. The sequel has yet to start production, and we can point the finger at a few major scheduling conflicts:
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Addison Rae: The TikTok star turned scream queen is currently busy with her touring commitments.
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Milo Manheim: He just landed a massive role in the live-action Tangled remake, which is eating up his calendar.
Eli Roth isn’t worried.
Even with the delays, director Eli Roth isn’t breaking a sweat. He’s confident that John Carver will return to Plymouth at precisely the right time.
“Everybody wants to do it,” Roth recently told Variety. “I’m gonna have it locked and loaded, and we’ll find a time when we’re all available. We’ll just go back for a few weeks and have fun.”
Roth is back in the director’s chair and has been working on the script with his longtime collaborator Jeff Rendell. Expect familiar faces like Nell Verlaque and Rick Hoffman to return for round two alongside the younger cast.
Bigger Kills, Same Budget
For those worried that a sequel means a “watered-down” studio version, Roth is promising the opposite. He’s looking to “up the ante” without just throwing more money at the screen.
“I want it to be a challenge to pull off,” Roth teased. “If I’ve come up with the stuff that I think will make the best kills, then I’m going to do it like I’m never going to make another movie again.” Given the first movie’s “human turkey” scene, we can only imagine how twisted things are going to get.
While We Wait…
Don’t worry about Eli Roth being bored. He’s keeping himself plenty busy with his Horror Section Studios projects, including the highly anticipated Ice Cream Man and the wonderfully titled Don’t Go in That House, Bitch! featuring Snoop Dogg. Plus, he’s currently developing a “Hostel” TV series for Peacock, which should keep the gore-hounds happy until Thanksgiving is served again.
While you wait, watch or rewatch the 2023 original Thanksgiving on Prime Video or on Hulu.
