How “Ready or Not 2” sparked from a deleted post-credits scene to first movie
How “Ready or Not 2” sparked from a deleted post-credits scene to first movie
Nick RomanoThu, March 19, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
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Kathryn Newton and Samara Weaving in 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come'Credit: Courtesy of Searchlight PicturesKey Points -
Radio Silence filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett detail the cut Ready or Not sequence that spawned a sequel.
The duo chart the path of Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, including the part their other film, Abigail, played.
Gillett explains how they crafted a "bizarrely symmetrical story" with both movies.
As part of the original draft of Ready or Not, the 2019 film and a favorite of horror enthusiasts, screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy wrote a since-deleted post-credits scene.
The movie ended the same way it does in the final version, with Grace (Samara Weaving) surviving her Satan-worshipping in-laws and their ritualistic, sacrificial game of Hide and Seek. However, the tag jumped to what appeared to be some kind of lobby area to a hotel or conference center.
"It's a bunch of clearly very wealthy individuals talking about, 'Did you hear what happened to the Le Domases?'" Tyler Gillett, one half of the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence, tells Entertainment Weekly. "And then they walk through some big doors and reveal there's a giant crowd of people who are all there to worship Le Bail. I believe that 'Hail Satan!' was the last line of that tag."
While the post-credits scene was ultimately cut from Ready or Not, it got the filmmakers thinking about the larger mythology of their horror venture early on. "We were just all very intrigued with the idea that, for as narrow and small as the first story feels, there was really something much bigger living off screen that was driving all of it," Gillett says.
Samara Weaving at the end of 'Ready or Not'Credit: Fox Searchlight
There were numerous ideas at play for exactly how to end Ready or Not, including the post-credits scene. The reason it didn't happen was pure economics. "There's no way we can afford to shoot that," Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, the other half of Radio Silence, says of their on-a-budget movie. That scrapped material, however, became the jumping-off point for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the sequel opening in theaters this weekend.
Taking place directly after the events of the first, which ended with a striking shot of blood-soaked Grace smoking a cigarette in front of her Le Domas in-laws' burning mansion, the next entry reveals the next stage of the game. Grace's victory triggered another round of Hide and Seek, only this time members from four other rival families to clan Le Domas get to hunt her down.
Whoever wins now — whether it's our heroine surviving until daybreak or one of her pursuers killing her — gets to take the throne of the High Council that secretly runs the world and lead their flock of cultists. Complicating matters, at least for Grace, is the presence of her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), who haphazardly finds herself thrown into the game, as well.
Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and The Pitt Emmy winner Shawn Hatosy play Ursula and Titus, siblings representing the Danforth family. Néstor Carbonell (The Morning Show), Maia Jae Bastidas (Wayward), and Juan Pablo Romero (Please, After You) rep members of the El Caído family. Olivia Cheng (See) plays matriarch Wan Chen Xing opposite Antony Hall (Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent) as her son, Wan Cheng Fu. Varun Saranga (Wynonna Earp), Nadeem Umar-Khitab (The Handmaid's Tale), and Masa Lizdek (Doc) play members of the Rajan family.
Then there's The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood as the Council's lawyer overseeing it all. They even have filmmaker David Cronenberg playing the aging Danforth patriarch, which Bettinelli-Olpin describes as "truly mind-blowing for us" for filmmakers on "a relatively small budget" casting in Toronto.
Grace (Samara Weaving) surviving another bloodbath in 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come'Credit: Pief Weyman/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
The creatives were hooked on the concept of starting the sequel seconds after Ready or Not, an idea thrown out by Busick and Murphy. "We loved the audacity of it," Bettinelli-Olpin recalls. "We loved where it puts Grace as a character, that she's gonna have to experience the events of the next day while wearing quite literally the effects of the previous movie and with no sleep and on painkillers."
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Radio Silence had already been making a name for themselves in Hollywood through an intriguing Halloween-set segment of horror anthology V/H/S and their Eli Roth-approved Rosemary's Baby homage, Devil's Due. But that first Ready or Not gave them a great deal of goodwill in the business, showcasing their now-signature tone that rides so finely on the line between comedy hijinks and genuine horror.
The powers that be at studio distributor Searchlight Pictures wanted another one sooner than the current timeline, pretty much as soon as it proved to be a hit with legs long after premiere. However, the filmmakers cite life and work for getting in the way.
They went on to make two Scream movies, 2022's fifth entry and Scream VI the following year. Weaving was on their minds when casting the lead slasher role of Sam Carpenter, hence the character's name "Sam," but scheduling got in the way and led to Melissa Barrera landing the role.
"The more I think about it, there's a part of me that's really glad that didn't work out the way that they had planned," Bettinelli-Olpin comments, "'cause I don't know if we'd be here doing Ready or Not 2."
Kathryn Newton amongst the cast of 'Abigail'Credit: Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures
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After Scream came vampire ballerina flick Abigail, which featured Newton among the cast — another unlikely but key ingredient to this long-brewing sequel.
"The emotional core of the first movie with Alex [Mark O'Brien] and Grace was something that we were trying to figure out how to get into the second movie," Bettinelli-Olpin says of the newlyweds who break up in gory fashion by the end of it all. "When we worked with Kathryn on Abigail and really just fell in love with her onscreen and off, the idea that she could be Sam's sister was something that really resonated with the two of us. Then it all fell into place from there."
Now, in hindsight, as the filmmaking pair chart their next venture, a new Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, they see both Ready or Nots as two halves of a whole. The first one begins with a wedding and ends in a bloody breakup. The second film picks up from that breakup and ends on a different kind of wedding "in the most unconventional and f---ed up way imaginable," Gillett says. (It'll make sense when you watch it.)
"Just looking at it from 30,000 feet as this bizarrely symmetrical story that takes place over two movies was a really fun way to design the overall structure of the crazy journey that this character goes on," he continues, "and really the two love stories that we're telling in [Grace's] life over 72 hours."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
