Ready or Not first hit cinemas in 2019 without much expectation. The comedy-horror, about a woman being hunted by her partner’s family as part of a wedding night ritual, was always going to be a tricky one to reel viewers in.
But, despite a $6 million budget, Ready or Not was a hit. Led by Australian star Samara Weaving, alongside a cast that included Adam Brody, Andie MacDowell and Henry Czerny, the Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett-directed film went on to gross over $57 million at the box office and garnered a cult following.
The success has resulted in the newly-released sequel, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. This time around, Grace (Weaving) finds out that surviving death from her in-laws, she now has to take on the world’s wealthiest families, who are at risk of losing their fortunes.
Joining Weaving in the sequel includes a slew of new and major names, like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Elijah Wood, Néstor Carbonell, David Cronenberg and Kathryn Newton.
We sat down with Gellar and Wood ahead of the film’s release to talk all about Ready or Not 2, the horror film genre and what’s next for both stars.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: It’s fair to say that Ready or Not was an unexpected hit all around the world, but given the success, it’s not surprising that a sequel was made. When did you become involved in the conversations?
Sarah Michelle Gellar: I was a fan of the first one. I got a phone call one day, and they said, ‘Are you a fan?’ I said, ‘Yes, obviously!’ I read the script, and I absolutely loved it. I wound up zooming with Matt and Tyler, I think pretty much the next day and about two minutes into the conversation with them, I’m like, ‘Yep, I’ll do it. I’m in.’It just sounded like such a fun opportunity.
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I thought [Samara] was so incredible in the first one. I thought the first one was so original and creative, and I thought this one really honoured the first one, yet at the same time sort of dug deeper into the lore, and it just seemed like such a great experience. Luckily, I was correct.
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Elijah Wood: Yeah, I mean, all those things are sort of similar for me. I’m a big fan of the original film. I knew Matt and Tyler a bit. We’ve been trying to work together more on the production side, and they emailed me about this character, the Lawyer. I loved the pitch, and then I read the script and similarly found the script to deepen the lore, deepen the narrative of the first film, honouring it, and having more fun with the premise, and including more people in that film. I leapt at the chance to be a part of it.
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Neither of you are strangers to big film and TV franchises. Is there ever a trepidation when you get involved in sequels, after something has been so well received the first time around?
Wood: I think if the script hadn’t been great.
Gellar: Yeah, you don’t do it just because the first movie was good. You do it because we read the script and thought, ‘Wow.’ And it just goes to show, I think sometimes studios race to make a sequel just because something is beloved or is a big hit, and they really took their time until they knew the story and they knew what the end was, and I think it shows in the film.
Wood: Totally. I think just faith in Matt and Tyler, faith in Searchlight, and Sam for this being the right moment, this being the right way to get into a sequel and having faith in that.
You mentioned that the story is key. Ready or Not, when it came out, was a tough sell. It’s about a family that are trying to kill each other.
Wood: [Laughs]
Gellar: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s so unbelievable! Who would ever believe a family hates each other?
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But it worked. However, with this sequel, despite its success, most of the cast from the first movie are dead. How can you maintain that story and magic with characters when they aren’t in the sequel.
Wood: It’s the tone of the first film that maintains through this, so that tone is really specific, right? It’s not really a horror movie, it’s not fully an action movie, but it has all these elements…
Gellar: It’s not really a comedy, but it is…
Wood: Yeah. And at its core, it’s a game. Because once she draws that card and the game of hide and seek begins in the first movie, that’s the world we’re in. We’re in real-time hide and seek, and the stakes are death. That’s super fun for an audience. And this takes all of that, and deepens the narrative elements so the lore that we understand more about the first movie and even more about what’s behind all of this in this film, and then resets for a new game, which is also equally fun.
Gellar: You seem very hesitant about this. Do you not trust us?
Wood: [Laughs] It’s the first film with a deeper sense of itself, and just as much, if not more fun.
Gellar: And also the stakes are higher, I think, because from the get-go, not only does the audience know what the stakes are, but Sam’s character knows what the stakes are. And that changes because in the beginning, she doesn’t get it. So you have a lot of the film where it’s like a little bit of cat and mouse; she doesn’t get that they’re really trying to kill her. It’s like from the moment this starts, she knows what’s happening. I also think it’s so creative. This movie, without spoiling stuff, takes place about seven seconds after the first one.
Wood: And also, there’s Kathryn [Newton] in this film, which is another new added element.
Gellar: An incredible element.
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A lot of the successful horror films in recent years do have some elements of dark comedy or even fun in them, Ready or Not is another example. Does it feel like today’s horror films need to have a bit of everything to get fans on board.
Gellar: No, because I think there’s also still straight horror. What I love about Matt and Tyler is that they’re creating their own genre. Scream really was a comedy horror film, right? That was the first time I think we really saw comedy in horror. Even substance was different, right? It was like a different kind of storytelling, and I think there’s a lot of the sameness in Hollywood. It’s always special when somebody wants to create new, and that’s, I think, what Matt and Tyler do.
Wood: I agree. There are certainly straight horror movies, but I also think what’s sort of great about genre is that rules don’t really apply to genre. It can kind of be anything and everything, and you can constantly, sort of, rewrite what expectations are and play with expectations, which is a big part of horror and genre in general; subverting expectations, playing into them, and then doing something different.
Looking beyond Ready or Not, what’s next for you both. Elijah, you recently had an incredible cameo in I Love LA and were in 2025’s The Monkey. What else can you tell us about?
Wood: We’re about to start production on the last season of Yellowjackets… and then there’s some things along the horizon that have been hinted at that I can’t really talk about, officially.
OK, let’s put the heat on Sarah then. I know the Buffy reboot is the big one, but you’re also working on a new animated show with Brendan Fraser, executive produced by blink-182’s Tom DeLonge. This is super exciting.
Wood: Wait, what? but, OK.
Gellar: Oh, do you not know about this?
Wood: No!
Gellar: This is incredible. So in March, I have an animated show coming out that stars me, Brendan Frasier, and Josh Gad.
Wood: Oh, right!
Gellar: It’s basically about these three bears that wake up in the forest after hibernation to find out that someone’s fracking the forest. So obviously, they have to save the forest. So they decide to become meth dealers to save the forest, to make enough money to save it.
Wood: It’s Breaking Bear.
Gellar: It is. It’s Breaking Bear. And it is the craziest. It also stars Elizabeth Hurley, Annie Murphy. I mean, it’s just incredible. It’s so out there. It’s the kind of thing that none of us could ever do live action because we would be cancelled in about 10 seconds. Every time I get a script, I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, we’re doing what in this?’ It’s ridiculous. People are either gonna love it or be like, ‘You’ve lost it. You’ve lost the plot.’
Wood: I can’t wait to see that. Awesome.
Gellar: It’s unbelievable.
You posted a photo with Tom, and it nearly broke the internet. It’s like the best of film and TV, and music coming together.
Gellar: [Laughs]
Wood: Did you talk about aliens?
Gellar: Oh, yes. Brendan, once he got Tom started, it didn’t stop. Tom is like the number one researcher aficionado… yeah, he goes deep.
Wood: Fuck yeah, that’s awesome.
And lastly, where are we at with Buffy?
Gellar: We’re revisiting the world. I mean, that’s sort of the idea. It’s something that is very obviously close to my heart, and we have to make sure that this is exactly the story we want to tell the way we want to tell it. So we’re just taking our time with it. I think it’s frustrating to some people, but I promise that we won’t do it unless we know it’s worthy of that. It just takes time.
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is in cinemas now.
Note: This interview took place before news that the Buffy reboot was cancelled.
