Happy Death Day star Jessica Rothe shares her idea for what the story of a Freaky crossover movie could be. Blumhouse's model for creating low-budget, genre-bending horror movies has helped deliver some memorable films in recent years. Director Christopher Landon launched a franchise in 2017 with the release of Happy Death Day. The slasher puts a spin on the concept of living the same day over and over again, as popularized in films like Groundhog Day. It stars Jessica Rothe as Tree Gelbman and was a surprise hit. The success led to Happy Death Day 2U in 2019, but no immediate plans for a third film materialized.
Landon and Blumhouse teamed up again, though, for 2020's Freaky. The film received a short exclusive theatrical run near the end of the year before becoming available on video on demand. Freaky's unique twist is that the horror film uses a body-swapping story to put a serial killer into the body of a teenage girl. Kathryn Newton played the 15-year-old high school student Millie Kessler, while Vince Vaughn portrayed The Butcher. Freaky was another critical hit for Blumhouse and Landon, and the director revealed it takes place in the same universe as Happy Death Day.
During a recent interview with THR, Jessica Rothe was asked about a potential crossover. This isn't the first time that the Happy Death Day star has discussed a crossover with Freaky, but in the past she's mostly just agreed that it would be fun to do one. In the new interview, Rothe mentions some of her hopes for where the story could go if Tree and Millie did meet. But, she isn't just hoping to work with Newton, as Rothe wants Vince Vaughn to cameo too.
I agree with you. I think that’s totally the way to go because, as you said, [Newton’s Butcher] embodies so much strength, power and twisted badass-ness in that role. I was so lucky to get to see it on opening weekend, and it has such fun, wild performances from both Kathryn and Vince. So I agree with you that it totally needs to be a showdown of Tree versus Millie. And maybe Vince can make a cameo as a scream queen because he gave us scream queens a run for our money. He did a really good job. (Laughs.) But that’s what I love about Chris’ [Landon] work; he subverts things like that. Who would have ever thought that Vince Vaughn would be the next great scream queen? He found a lot of truth, honesty and vulnerability. These are colors that I’ve never seen Vince Vaughn perform before, and that’s one of the things that I love about genre-bendy films. There’s a lot more permission for actors to step outside of the boxes that people are used to seeing them in.
The part of Rothe's pitch for a Happy Death Day and Freaky crossover that is most intriguing is the idea of it being Tree versus Millie. In the past, Rothe has expressed a desire to team-up with Newton's character in such a crossover. However, it would be quite interesting to see them go head-to-head. It is unclear how that would work given Freaky's ending and what Millie's future appears to be, but Landon could figure something out if that is what the stars and fans wanted to see. With the Happy Death Day franchise already dealing with time travel, the crossover could go back in time to the events of Freaky but have Tree intervene this time.
At this point, it is unknown if Happy Death Day and Freaky will ever overlap, but there is growing support for the crossover. Rothe clearly has a few ideas of what the movie could entail. Landon also surely has a rough idea in mind for a crossover, otherwise there'd be no point in confirming they exist in the same universe. We don't know how well Freaky did on PVOD for Blumhouse, but it did perform okay at the box office considering the circumstances. Hopefully, the Happy Death Day and Freaky crossover will happen and give fans a chance to see Tree and Millie as either allies or foes.
Source: THR