It's been five years since Blumhouse's The Invisible Man bucked the odds and managed to become a smash-hit just as COVID was shutting down theaters in 2020. Despite the intervening years, star Elisabeth Moss says a sequel is still in the works - but there's a seriously high bar to clear in order to live up to the acclaimed original.
"We really want to make sure [that] if we do a sequel, it's worthy and it's going to have to be as good if not better," Moss tells ScreenRant. "So that's been kind of what's slowed us down. But I don't think that's a bad thing. I think if we're going to do it, it's got to be right. But we still want to do it. We're still working on it. We just have to get the right script together."
Blumhouse's first Invisible Man film took some cues from HG Wells original novel and its beloved 1933 adaptation by Universal, but it's less of a remake and more of a new twist on the concept. The film raked in over $155 million on a budget of just $7 million - an astounding success.
In it, Moss plays Cecilia, a woman who is being driven mad by her wealthy ex, who torments her with a high-tech suit that turns him invisible. It's a taut thriller that manages to live up to the legacy of Invisible Man stories by carving out its own niche rather than trying to recreate the past - a rare feat in the current climate of homage-heavy remakes and reboots of classic stories.
"It was out for two weeks before COVID and made hundreds of millions of dollars. We could have easily just churned out a sequel and thrown it up on streaming and called it a day, and I think some people would've made money off of that," Moss continues.
"I am so grateful to Universal and Blum for not doing that and for having a standard that's unusual in these circumstances and really wanting it to be worth doing. So it's an unusual thing, but that doesn't usually happen. But I feel like it's important. We love that movie so much. The people who made it – we're so proud of it."
While we wait for a sequel to The Invisible Man, check out our picks for the 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after you stop watching.
