Posted in: Movies, Sony | Tagged: sony pictures, spyglass media group, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving 2

Thanksgiving Star Teases a Bigger Sequel Story

One of the stars of the popular 2023 slasher flick Thanksgiving says that the sequel will answer questions and raise the stakes.

It took a strangely long road for Thanksgiving to go from joke trailer to real movie. Eli Roth first introduced the idea as a fake preview tucked into Grindhouse back in 2007, and for years, it had people saying that they would totally watch the film if it ever existed. Then, a full feature finally arrived in 2023, and it did well enough to prove the concept had enough support to validate its existence all these years later.

That is essentially why a sequel was greenlit quickly, with TriStar and Sony backing Thanksgiving 2 shortly after the first film's run started. A 2025 release window was floated early on, but the follow-up has obviously taken longer to align than expected, largely because the cast has been busy. And by January 2026, Roth was already acknowledging that scheduling was the main hurdle and that the team would move when everyone can lock it in.

Now, even with the delays, one of the first film's breakout survivors is now offering a pretty specific tease about what the sequel is aiming to do.

Thanksgiving Star Talks Sequel Progression

Jalen Thomas Brooks, who plays Bobby, said Roth's plan is a fresh take that still closes the loop on key relationships, telling Screen Rant, "I've talked to Eli about it a little bit. He said it's completely different, a new, original take on everything. He wants to give the audience a reason to go back and see a sequel to a slasher. Bobby will be there, questions will be answered, especially with Jessica, with Ryan. It's really nice. It's a good book end, for sure. There's some cool stuff coming."

If you need a quick refresher on what the first movie set up, Thanksgiving takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where a deadly Black Friday riot at RightMart sets the stage for a year-later killing spree. A masked attacker in a pilgrim hat and John Carver mask starts targeting people connected to that chaos, turning the holiday season into a whodunnit slasher with social media taunts and escalating set pieces. The cast includes Patrick Dempsey as Sheriff Eric Newlon, Nell Verlaque as final girl Jessica Wright, Brooks as Bobby, Milo Manheim as Ryan, Addison Rae as Gaby, and Gabriel Davenport as Scuba.

By the end, the survivors most likely to return are the ones still standing in the finale, including Jessica, Bobby, Ryan, Gaby, and Scuba, as well as Jessica's father, Thomas. And with Roth still saying everyone wants to do it once schedules line up, the sequel sounds less like a question of if and more like a question of when.

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