Smile 2 director teases that while the first movie explained the curse, the sequel will move in a surprising direction: "Now that the audience is familiar, it allows this new context"

(Image credit: Paramount Pictures / Barbara Nitke)

Smile 2 director Parker Finn says that even though the flagship film explains the curse – audiences ain't seen nothin' yet.

"We had only sort of pulled back the corner of the rug to peek under," Parker Finn tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, September 12, which features The Penguin on the cover. While by the end of the first movie we know a lot about how the curse works – and even what it looks like – the writer/director asserts that there’s still a lot we don’t know and that he’s looking to surprise audiences with the direction this sequel takes.

"With the mystery of the first one, I thought it was really fun that, now that the audience is familiar, it allows this new context, this new way to position the audience. They come in ahead of where some of the characters are. I wanted to see, 'Can we use that to the film’s advantage?'"

Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott as a pop star who becomes afflicted with the curse as she embarks on a world tour. The cast includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Dylan Gelula, Ray Nicholson, and Kyle Gallner in a reprisal of his role from the first film (and you might recall...he's also cursed).

Smile 2 is released on October 18. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, September 12.

Check out the covers below:

The Penguin covers of Total Film magazine — (Image credit: Sky/HBO/Total Film)

Subscribers have the exclusive text-free cover on the way to them right now, with the issue then hitting shops and digital newsstands on Thursday 12 September.

Total Film subscriber offer — (Image credit: Sky/HBO/Warner Bros/Disney/20th Century Studios/Prime Video)

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.