Black Phone 2 Featurette Dials Up the Terror for a Wickedly Fun Ride

Universal and Blumhouse knew exactly what they had with The Black Phone: a creepy one-and-done that did not need a sequel… and then it made over $160 million worldwide on a $16 million budget. So yeah, Black Phone 2 is happening. It hits theaters October 17, 2025, filming wrapped in January, and there is a new featurette out there teasing bigger scares and hyping the return of Ethan Hawke as The Grabber.

Who is back, who is new, and who is running this thing

• Director: Scott Derrickson returns to direct.
• Writers: Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, who wrote the first film, penned the sequel too.
• Producers: Derrickson and Cargill are producing with Blumhouse duo Jason Blum and Ryan Turek.
• Returning cast: Mason Thames (How to Train Your Dragon) as Finney Shaw; Madeleine McGraw (Secrets of Sulphur Springs) as Finney’s sister Gwen; Jeremy Davies (Justified) as their dad Terrence; Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight) back as The Grabber.
• The curious one: Miguel Mora, whose only credit is The Black Phone, returns—he played Finney’s friend Robin (who died) in the first movie, but here he is credited as a different character named Ernesto.
• New faces: Demian Bichir (The Hateful Eight), Arianna Rivas (A Working Man), and Anna Lore (Final Destination: Bloodlines).

Quick refresher on the first movie

The original was based on a Joe Hill short story and centered on Finney, a smart but quiet 13-year-old kidnapped by a sadist and locked in a soundproof basement. A dead landline on the wall starts ringing, and the voices on the other end are the killer’s previous victims, guiding Finney toward survival. If you want the source material, Hill’s short appears in his collection 20th Century Ghosts.

What the sequel is actually about

"Ethan Hawke returns to the most sinister role of his career as The Grabber seeks vengeance on Finn (Mason Thames) from beyond the grave by menacing Finn’s younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw). As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, the headstrong 15-year-old Gwen begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake. Determined to solve the mystery and end the torment for both her and her brother, Gwen persuades Finn to visit the camp during a winter storm. There, she uncovers a shattering intersection between The Grabber and her own family’s history. Together, she and Finn must confront a killer who has grown more powerful in death and more significant to them than either could imagine."

So, yes, The Grabber is dead and somehow still messing with the Shaw family. The hook this time is Gwen: she is 15, she is getting those 'black phone' calls in her dreams, and her visions point to three boys being hunted at a winter camp called Alpine Lake. She pushes Finney (now 17) to go there in the middle of a storm, where the siblings stumble into a nasty link between The Grabber and their own family history. The supernatural angle is leveled up.

A couple of eyebrow-raisers

Hawke returning as a very dead killer is a bold swing for a sequel to a story that felt complete. Also worth noting: Miguel Mora popping back up as a different character after playing Robin is the kind of casting choice that makes you double-take. Flashback? Reimagining? We will see.

Black Phone 2 arrives October 17, 2025. The new featurette is already online if you want a taste; it is the usual 'scarier and more fun' promise, but if Derrickson and Cargill are steering again, there is a decent chance they make it count.