Renny Harlin Says The Strangers: Chapter 3 Arrives Early Next Year

Renny Harlin really did it: he shot an entire Strangers trilogy at once. There was even a minute where it looked like Lionsgate might drop all three in 2024. That obviously didn’t happen. Chapter 1 hit theaters in May 2024, Chapter 2 waited until September 2025, and now Harlin says Chapter 3 is aiming for early 2026. Ambitious rollout, very not-2024.

Release plan: what changed and what’s next

Harlin told The Direct that the third film should land early next year. That tracks with the way this whole experiment has evolved: shoot everything in one go, then take the time to shape the sequels based on what worked (and what didn’t) once audiences saw the first movie. That initial idea of cramming all three into one year got shelved, and honestly, good call.

"I would say that early next year is what it’s looking like (for Chapter 3). It goes into a very, very dark place. It’s an incredible privilege for a director to to be able to tell this kind of a full story... to explore our main character for four and a half hours and see her mental situation completely changed from being a vulnerable girl in the first movie... And I will try to make it as raw and realistic as possible... These movies will gradually get more physical and mentally more disturbing as we go into Chapter 3."

What this trilogy is actually doing

Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) leads all three films, with Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), Rachel Shenton (All Creatures Great and Small), Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy), and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) backing her up.

Chapter 1 keeps things familiar: Petsch’s character and her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) are driving cross-country to start over in the Pacific Northwest. Their car dies in Venus, Oregon. They crash at a secluded Airbnb. Three masked strangers make their night a living hell. Harlin has been clear that the first film mirrors the original’s setup: isolated couple, random home invasion, no good reason for any of it.

The twist with this trilogy comes after that. Chapters 2 and 3 push past the night-of terror and into the aftermath: what this kind of violence does to the survivors, and who the masked killers actually are, where they come from, and why they do it. It’s the kind of franchise swing that either deepens the mythology or over-explains it. Harlin’s words suggest he’s going for the former.

Inside baseball: how they pulled this off

Here’s the nuts-and-bolts part fans will care about: Harlin and company shot the entire trilogy’s principal photography in 52 days. Yes, all three. After Chapter 1 made money, Lionsgate opened the door for more shooting. They went back for 8 days of additional photography on Chapter 2 and 15 days on Chapter 3. Harlin has said they listened to audience feedback and used those extra days to tweak and enhance the sequels. That’s rare for a pre-shot trilogy and probably a big reason the release schedule stretched into 2025 and 2026.

• Chapter 1: in theaters May 2024
• Chapter 2: in theaters September 2025
• Chapter 3: targeting early 2026, per Harlin
• Production: all three shot in 52 days of principal photography, then 8 extra days on Chapter 2 and 15 on Chapter 3 after Chapter 1’s box office

Bottom line: Chapter 3 is designed to push harder, get meaner, and finish Petsch’s arc in a way that actually feels like one long story. If Lionsgate plants a date, expect it to be early 2026 and expect the tone to be darker than anything in the first two.