THE BLACK PHONE 2 (2025): Ethan Hawke Set to Return as the Grabber in Sequel to Popular Horror Film

Ethan Hawke to Return as the Grabber

Ethan Hawke is slated to return for the sequel to 2022’s hit horror movie, The Black Phone, alongside some of the first film’s other cast members.

The Black Phone 2 is now slated to be released in theaters in June of 2025. Hawke will be back as the Grabber and Mason Thames will also be appearing in the movie. Script details are still not yet entirely clear but the film will be written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill and promises more thrills and chills like the ones which were delivered to audiences in the terrifying first picture. Some other co-stars of the original movie will also return such as Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies and Miguel Mora.

Director of the first movie, Derrickson, was certainly not going to move forward on this sequel project without the return of Oscar-nominated actor, Ethan Hawke, who was so frightening as the Grabber, a killer who kidnaps young children and keeps them hidden in his basement. The “black phone” is the connection between Thames’ character in the first film and those voices of the previous victims of the demented man who Hawke played rather convincingly in the first movie from 2022.

Hawke found the first film a lot different than what it appears to be on the surface. Hawke actually found the brother/sister relationship in the first movie, “moving.” Hawke donned different masks in the first movie which were rather creepy and helped to make his Grabber one of the most memorable recent horror movie villains. He has franchise potential for sure and this sequel is the first step in turning these movies into a series which may or may not happen at this point. Only a second film is assured as of now.

Derrickson and Hawke also collaborated on Sinister before they did again on the original The Black Phone. Ethan Hawke is currently starring in one of the best thrillers of the year (if not the best), Leave the World Behind. It will be on Netflix on December 8th. That film co-stars Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon and also showcases the talents of another Oscar winner, Julia Roberts.

The Black Phone received a “B+” CinemaScore grade when it was released and was well-received by many critics. It made $90 million domestically and $71 million internationally and proved to be a profitable and successful horror movie. A good script is pivotal to the new film also being a success and it will be interesting to see how Derrickson integrates all the characters into the upcoming movie after the events of the first film. If Ethan Hawke is anywhere near as frightening as he was in the first movie, audiences will be in for a real scarefest.

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