Quiet Place 2 Director John Krasinski Originally Said No To The Sequel, Teases Third Movie

2018's A Quiet Place was a big hit; it made a lot of money and was a critical success. But director and star John Krasinski wasn't enamored with the idea of making a sequel.

Krasinski told Screen Rant that he had no plans to make a sequel. In fact, he said no when he was first approached about it over concerns that it would be seen as a cash grab. But Krasinski eventually agreed to make a sequel because he came up with an idea that he latched onto. The sequel plays with the idea that parents tell their children they can keep them safe, when they know in reality they cannot. This idea felt organic to Krasinski, and it's why he agreed to get behind the camera again for A Quiet Place II, which opens this weekend after a 14-month delay due to the pandemic.

"I had no intention of doing a sequel because I'm an audience member first, before a director, writer, actor. When I see sequels, a lot of the time I do the eye roll and go, 'Oh man, it's just a cash grab studio kind of move. It's not going to be nearly as good as the first.' And I didn't want that to happen, so I just said no," he explained. "And what happened was I had this organic, tiny idea and it was about Millie. And the idea was if Millie was the lead of the movie not just because it's cool to have Millie be the lead of the movie, but she's actually the continuation of the metaphor in the first movie. So if the first movie is about the promise you make to your kids that will inevitably be broken and everybody knows it, except your kids, that if you stay close I can keep you safe forever."

"When that promise is broken I think that's what growing up really is," he added. "So if the first movie is a love letter to my kids from me, what I thought it meant to be a parent, this one is a hopeful sort of futuristic dream that I have that my kids will be this courageous, this optimistic, this hopeful, no matter how dark life gets, that they can still light a candle and try to soldier on."

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Krasinski doubled down on these comments, saying he had "no intention" of making a Quiet Place sequel "because I didn't think that I could come up with anything as organic as the first one was to me and certainly nothing as personal as the first one was to me."

Krasinski also spoke about the potential for a third Quiet Place film, saying the sequel contains some Easter eggs that might allude to what happens in a third movie.

"We even went so far as to put in a couple Easter eggs, so that if I did do a third one, they would connect back to the second one," he said.

Krasinki isn't in charge of the Quiet Place series from an executive-level position, as that power resides with Paramount. And he acknowledges that if the franchise continues in the future, he's happy to have someone else take over directing duties.

"Even though I'm the guy who did the first two, I won't be the guy or girl who does the last one or the last two. I know that," he said "At the end of the day, this world is really fun to explore. This is an amazing sandbox to play in, and whether or not I'm the guy to do any more of them or how many more of them, I don't know."

A Quiet Place spin-off from Mud director Jeff Nichols is already in the works, but very little is known about it.

GameSpot's A Quiet Place II review scored the film an 8/10.

"A Quiet Place Part II is the best kind of horror sequel--one that honors the elements that made the first so successful, but instead of simply repeating the formula, finds new ways to keep the story fresh and the scares effective," reviewer Dan Auty said.