This Is Not the ‘Speak to Me’ Sequel We Had in Thoughts

A couple of years in the past, sibling directing duo Danny and Michael Philippou made the leap from viral YouTube movies to the Hollywood A-list, with A24 choosing up their breakout function Speak to Me. On the time, the brothers teased their sequel ambitions, and a follow-up to the horror hit was officially greenlit in August of 2023. Now we now have information of extra Speak to Me on the best way, however it’s not the cinematic sequel followers have been ready for.

In line with Variety, the Speak to Me universe will increase with a sequence of six half-hour episodes “created solely for Meta headsets and shot absolutely in 3D, making for a completely immersive XR expertise that may permit horror followers to really feel like they’re dwelling out the fear.”

That terror, in fact, will draw on the film’s premise: a disembodied hand with the facility to own anybody adventurous or silly sufficient to seize ahold of it. A short jaunt into the spirit realm could also be thrilling, however it can be extraordinarily harmful, because the Speak to Me characters study when their occasion sport takes an irresponsible flip. “Trapped in a hell dimension” will not be an effective way to spend your prime years, children!

It seems like that lesson shall be discovered anew, because the sequence will comply with “a gaggle of younger vacationers chasing the last word occasion on a European island till they uncover the Hand, a supernatural excessive deadlier than any drug.”

Whereas the Philippous are aboard as government producers, a brand new artistic group is guiding the Meta and XRTV sequence collaboration. Darren Brandl got here up with the idea with Trent Atherton, with Atherton writing all six episodes; Craig William Macneill (Fort Rock, Westworld) is the director.

Brandl is the co-founder of XRTV, and in a press release to Selection, he defined why Speak to Me was an excellent challenge for “prolonged actuality,” or XR.

“The promise of XR is this concept that we will now map the story into your personal area so you are feeling such as you’re inside it … its superpower is presence: that awe of being transported, the unsettling feeling {that a} demon is with you—in your room,” he advised the commerce; as for style bona fines, he’s additionally a part of Eli Roth’s CryptTV, which creates digital horror content material.

“Speak to Me is the proper immersive IP as a result of it’s about younger adults who search the Hand to expertise the euphoria of possession however find yourself suffering from breaking by means of to the spirit world. It made possession enjoyable, and the scares unforgettable.”

In different phrases, the Speak to Me sequence goals to make you are feeling such as you’re truly possessed, which is actually intriguing.

Nevertheless, we’re nonetheless holding out hope for Speak to Me 2 to hit theaters finally, bringing a much more accessible (if much less immersive) continuation of the story to followers. And that appears to nonetheless be within the playing cards; when the Philippous launched Deliver Her Again earlier this yr, they spoke in regards to the sequel in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

“After we submitted Deliver Her Again to a few of the funding locations, they have been like, ‘What about Speak to Me 2?’ So there was stress from individuals,” Danny Philippou advised THR in Could. “[Talk to Me 2] was going to be the subsequent challenge, however I used to be like, ‘I actually, actually wish to make [Bring Her Back]. Is it okay if I make this one?’ So A24 was on board, and so they allowed us to.”

Michael Philippou added, “To go straight into Speak to Me 2 all the time felt like it could simply be capitalizing on hype, versus what’s the precise story we wish to inform subsequent. We would have liked a break from Speak to Me 2 so we will revisit it with contemporary eyes.”

As of but, there’s no launch date or title for the Speak to Me sequence from Meta and XRTV.

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