Black Phone 2 has finally hit audiences this weekend, following up on the story that began in 2021’s The Black Phone. Now that fans are finally able to grab their tickets and see what it has in store, the creator of the story weighed in on the approach he took to making a sequel after the predecessor left little room for one. 

After being the only one to survive and kill The Grabber, Finney Blake is still trying to find out how to pick up the threads of his life years later. But once his sister starts getting cryptic dreams that remind Finney of his past, he finds out that The Grabber may be back for him, but coming from beyond death to face him. 

When it comes to The Black Phone, Joe Hill, author of the short story it was based on, stated that there was some hesitancy on a sequel. The writers of the first film, C. Robert Cargill and director Scott Derickson, initially weren’t on board for a follow up, but it was Hill that convinced them to work on it. 

“The first film was beautifully self-contained, so it’s not obvious that there should be a second film. But the thing is, it was just sitting right there. There’s this phone that Finney, our hero, uses to speak to people who have died. And I just thought, ‘What if the next person who calls him on it was The Grabber in Hell? I told that idea to Scott and Cargill, and Cargill especially was like, ‘Yes!’” Hill said, according to Variety. 

Black Phone 2 is now playing in theaters.