“A Quiet Place” broke boundaries in 2018. It was a theatrical experience, where no one dared to eat popcorn or whisper to their friends. It was a new take on a thriller; instead of being haphazardly thrown in, jump scares were used meticulously. A scary movie wrapped in a genuine family love story, it was an enormous success, making approximately $188 million domestically. As director John Krasinski (“The Office”) put it in our roundtable interview with him, “The entire experience of the first movie was a wow moment.”
Given the ending of the first film, people were a little shocked to hear that Krasinski and fellow stars like Emily Blunt (“Mary Poppins Returns”) and Millicent Simmonds (“Wonderstruck”) were returning for a sequel. Even Krasinski himself admitted that when the studio first asked him to do a sequel, “(he) very quickly said no,” in fear that “(he) could never match the experience that (he) had … or articulate any sort of organic storytelling like (he) did on the first one.” He looked at the prospect of creating a sequel through the eyes of an “audience member before … a writer, or director, or actor.” He didn’t want to make a sequel solely for profit, or to just “get one out there.” He wanted it to have meaning.
Ultimately, Krasinski decided to create the sequel because he wanted to center it around the kids, Regan (Simmonds) and Marcus (Noah Jupe, “Wonder”). He explained that he tried to make the second film “a continuation and … further expansion of the metaphor … in the first one.” He wanted to extend the idea of parenthood from “the promise that you make to your kids” to “protect (them) forever” to when that promise is broken. The breaking of that promise is “what growing up is.” Krasinski also added that “if the first movie was a love letter to (his) kids about what (he) see(s) … parenting encapsulated as,” then “the second movie is a letter that (he) wrote to them about all (his) hopes and dreams and what they could be.” Once he realized that there was not merely a natural inspiration for creating a sequel, but that it would be a “thank you note to the audience that came to the first one,” and an homage to his children, he decided to jump into the world of “A Quiet Place” again.
“A Quiet Place II” was originally intended for release in March of 2020, but the release date was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That being said, now that the film is officially set to hit theaters, it’s like no time has passed. Fans like myself are all still ready to hold our breaths and leave our popcorn uneaten again as we watch this highly anticipated sequel. We are still incredibly excited to see what the new film will bring and how the Abbott family will cope with the horrors they continue to face daily. We are prepared to see what John Krasinski has in store for us again.
Daily Arts Writer Sabriya Imami can be reached at simami@umich.edu.