Writer and producer James Vanderbilt says it would be great to revisit a sequel to Ready or Not. Starring Samara Weaving, Ready or Not is a horror action-comedy that takes the simple concept of hide-and-seek and turns it into a very deadly game with some horrific consequences. Released in 2019 and quickly becoming a cult-like hit, Ready or Not was written by Scream's Guy Busick and directed by Scream's Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Vanderbilt produced Ready or Not and serves as writer/producer on Scream.
Vanderbilt has worked on several high-profile projects throughout his career, including David Fincher's Zodiac and Dwayne Johnson's The Rundown. He is also no stranger to the comic book genre, having penned the scripts for The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, as well as Sam Raimi's scrapped Spider-Man 4 with Tobey Maguire. He's also dabbled in the DC universe of films, having adapted The Losers in 2010.
Ready or Not ended with a definitive conclusion, not necessarily leaving more to be explored. Still, given the strong performance from Weaving and the concept being interesting enough, there are undoubtedly new directions it could be taken. In an interview with Screen Rant, Vanderbilt says that he loves the Ready or Not universe and says he'd be open to exploring it further while noting how tricky it was to initially sell the film's tone. Thankfully, it was a success, and Vanderbilt says it would be "super fun" to revisit, mainly since he played the "devil" in the film. Check out his full quote below:
I love that universe and I think Guy [Busick] and Ryan [Christopher Murphy], who wrote it — Ryan and I went to college together, I met Guy through him. We've been friends for 20 years. — We all had such a blast making that movie and it was a tough movie to make and get made. Fox Searchlight really stood behind it, which was wonderful. But it is such a very specific tone and a lot of times with stuff that's horror-comedy, you really have to convince people that you can ride that line and that it's going to work. And so I feel like the movie was successful in doing that, and people really love it, it would be great to revisit that universe again. That would be super fun for me. Plus, I actually play the devil in it. So for me personally, I would be very excited to do it again.
Vanderbilt recently completed the script for Murder Mystery 2, which is currently filming, and is now prepping The Janson Directive with John Cena. He is also producing Michael Bay's next effort, Ambulance, and a TV series adaptation of Matthew Quirk's The Night Agent. Busick, meanwhile, has penned Final Destination 6, the next installment of the long-running series, which is currently in pre-production.
One way to continue the Ready or Not story would be with Weaving's character, who could potentially still have some debt to pay to the devil after the film's conclusion. Focusing on her character and placing her in another similar scenario could work out nicely and uniquely expand the franchise. However, if nothing comes to fruition, Ready or Not will be just fine as a one-and-done film, which is one of the more entertaining horror romps in recent years.