7 Years Later, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2 Gets Some Bad News

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The movie, released in 2019, was very successful. Although a sequel was planned, it’s currently stuck in development and hasn’t moved forward.

André Øvredal, the director of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, recently told /Film he’s still eager to make a sequel. However, securing the rights to continue the story has been difficult for the past seven years. Every time Øvredal looks into the project, the ownership issues remain unresolved, and he’s unable to move forward until it’s clear who owns the rights.

Rights Issues Have Held Up the Sequel

The film has been caught in a complicated copyright situation. The two studios that originally made it together, CBS Films and EOne, no longer exist, and the ownership rights have shifted to two other companies. Getting those companies to agree on how to move forward has taken a while, but there’s been some progress recently. We’re having discussions about it every few months, and things are starting to happen, as far as I know.

He explains that the focus shifts from creative storytelling to legal ownership, stating they have a fantastic story ready to be told, but it’s currently stalled because someone is claiming ownership of the film.

Will Scary Stories 2 Ever Come to Fruition?

Hasbro bought Entertainment One in 2019, but then sold it to Lionsgate in 2022. Also, CBS Films was shut down in 2019 due to internal changes at CBS. Considering this, if a new Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie was a high priority, the rights issues would likely be resolved by now. However, these things often take time, so it’s hard to say when – or even if – another Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark film will be made.

The movie’s screenplay was written by Dan and Kevin Hageman, and it’s based on a story developed by Guillermo del Toro, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan. The story originally comes from a series of scary books by Alvin Schwartz, with unsettling illustrations by Stephen Gammell. The film, which starred Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Natalie Ganzhorn, Gil Bellows, and Austin Abrams, was a financial success, earning over $104 million despite costing less than $28 million to make.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is currently streaming for free on Pluto TV.

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2026-05-23 23:43