John Krasinski: ‘A Quiet Place 2’ won’t feel like traditional sequel

“A Quiet Place.”
Paramount
Pictures

• John Krasinski gave some insight to Business Insider on his
  plans for the sequel to “A Quiet Place” he’s currently writing.
• He said it was his wife, Emily Blunt, who described it best,
  calling it not really a sequel but “the second book in a series
  of books. It’s a widening of a world.”

John Krasinski is not shy to admit he had no interest in doing a
sequel to “A Quiet Place.”

The $17 million horror movie, in which a family fends off
creatures that kill you if you make a sound, was a cash cow for
Paramount in 2018, as the movie took in an incredible $340.6 million worldwide at
the box office. Of course, the executives wanted Krasinski — who
wrote, directed, and starred in the movie alongside his wife
Emily Blunt — to make another.

But in rewriting the original script from screenwriters Bryan
Woods and Scott Beck, Krasinski felt he had pulled off what he
set out to do: tell a unique, family-focused genre movie. What
else could he offer a potential franchise? Well, he admitted he
did have, as he put it, one “tiny idea.”

“I told them I wasn’t going to participate in [a sequel] and to
find a new writer and director,” Krasinski told
Business Insider. But when the movie’s producer Drew Form
asked for some guidance in the search, Krasinski revealed the
sequel idea he had. “Drew was very smart and said, ‘Think on it
some more while we have these meetings with other people.’ Then
he threw the Jedi mind trick of asking me to just write the
sequel, and he sucked me in.”

Clearly, Form, and likely everyone at Paramount, knew that for a
successful “A Quiet Place” franchise to work it would help if
Krasinski stayed on board. And the actor-director eventually
couldn’t resist the chance to continue telling another story set
in this world.

(L-R) Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds in “A Quiet
Place.”
Paramount
Pictures

“Me going from not wanting to participate in a sequel to doing it
is the same reason I hope people will want to see one,” Krasinski
said. “My hope is people want to revisit this world and revisit
those stakes and those rules to have to abide by.”

Krasinski said he’s taking a similar approach to writing the
sequel as he did to the original. Krasinski wasn’t a huge fan of
the horror genre before making “A Quiet Place,” so he said he set
out to figure out what made him scared and then used
that to move forward with the movie. With the sequel, he said he
hasn’t reached out to directors he knows for guidance on how to
make a follow-up. Instead, he’s staying clear of other people’s
successes and failures and figuring out a way to do it on his
own.

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“Most sequels are a hero and villain returning, but there’s no
story behind it,” he said. “It’s basically, ‘Let’s give the
audience the character they want.’ And I think the brilliant
thing about ‘A Quiet Place’ is there’s a world.”

And it was Blunt who confirmed that to Krasinski, as well as
pointing out that the movie he’s crafting will be hard to call a
sequel.

“Emily actually blew my mind by categorizing it the correct way
after I pitched it to her. She said, ‘This isn’t a sequel at all
— this is the second book in a series of books. It’s a widening
of a world,” Krasinski explained.

Krasinski is currently writing the sequel, which Paramount has
slated for a May 2020 release.