Black Phone 2’ Mastermind Joe Hill on How He Came Up With The Grabber’s Return and What a Sequel Could Look Like

By William Earl

According To The variety SPOILER ALERT: This article contains very light spoilers about “Black Phone 2,” now playing in theaters.

The minute Joe Hill saw The Grabber’s mask, he knew “The Black Phone” could become a franchise.

“The mask was crafted by Tom Savini and Jason Baker,” Hill says. “I saw the mask with its swappable mouths: Sometimes the devil face is grinning, sometimes it’s frowning, and sometimes he has no mouth at all. I saw that mask and thought, ‘Oh, I think there’s gonna be a whole bunch of these movies.’ It struck me as instantly iconic in the way Freddy Krueger’s glove is iconic, in the way Michael Myers’ mask is iconic. I thought, ‘This is nightmare fuel, and people are going to want a lot of it.’ I thought he had the potential to become of these big, memorable ongoing horror villains, and if that’s going to be the case, I’d rather he be in good movies than bad ones.”

Hill’s intuition was spot on, as he brought up this memory during a discussion on the release date of “Black Phone 2,” the sequel from Universal Pictures that is now playing nationwide. The author has a busy few days, as his 900-page new book “King Sorrow” is set to come out during the same week, on Oct. 21. But he’s eager to discuss the expanded world of “Black Phone,” as the 2021 film, which introduced the murderous Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke, was developed from one of Hill’s short stories. The sequel, written by the team from the first film, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, embarks on territory beyond the source material. Hill was the first one of the trio to suggest actually doing the sequel, which follows Finney (Mason Thames), who escapes The Grabber in the first film, and his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who starts getting scary phone calls in her dreams, which leads to a way for the recently deceased Grabber to return.

“They didn’t know if they wanted to do a second film,” Hill says. “The first film was beautifully self-contained, so it’s not obvious that there should be a second film. But the thing is, it was just sitting right there. There’s this phone that Finney, our hero, uses to speak to people who have died. And I just thought, ‘What if the next person who calls him on it was The Grabber in Hell? I told that idea to Scott and Cargill, and Cargill especially was like, ‘Yes!’ I had some other concepts that they liked — some of them they passed over and some of them ended up in the film. We were just guys spitballing, seeing where we could land.”

Hill was thrilled that the duo were interested in making the sequel, with Derrickson also returning as director. The author says the pair is able to conjure something deeper from the material.

“If there was going to be a sequel, I want it to be Scott and Cargill who did because I had confidence they would deliver quality,” Hill says. “They would deliver something really fun to watch, and the hallmark of their work is a deep affection for their characters, and a sense of warmth even in the iciest of films. ‘Black Phone 2’ is pretty chilly, but you sense that warmth for the lead character, for the kids. If there’s going to be a sequel, let’s hopefully get them to be persuaded to do it, and then it will be good.”

When asked about another sequel featuring The Grabber, Hill is emphatic that it’s on his mind, but he doesn’t want to put the cart before the horse.

“We’ll see if people want more,” he says. “At the time we’re doing this interview, I have seen some numbers on the Thursday previews and they look pretty good. I’m pretty hopeful for where the film is going to land financially. But people vote with their dollars. If people want ‘Black Phone 3,’ they’ll let us know by banging down the doors to go see ‘Black Phone 2.’”

As for what the next chapter could look like?

“One of the things which is fun about ‘Black Phone’ is the first story is about Finney in danger and his sister trying to save him,” Hill says. ‘He’s the lead, and she’s the key second character. But in this film, there’s a flip where Gwen is the lead character and her brother is trying to save her. To me, the logical thing is if there is a third film, they are dual stars where they’re sitting trying to save each other. Maybe there’s a way to do that, maybe there isn’t … we’ll have to see.”