EXCLUSIVE: At long last, we have a development on They Follow, David Robert Mitchell’s follow-up to his cult 2015 horror film It Follows, as Naomi Ackie is in final talks to star opposite the returning Maika Monroe, multiple sources tell Deadline.
Reps for Neon couldn’t be reached for comment. There’s no word yet on who Ackie will play, nor the plot of the long anticipated sequel, other than it taking place a decade after the events of the original film.
Written and directed by Mitchell, It Follows is a psychological horror film centered on Jay Height (Monroe), a college student who, after a sexual encounter, becomes the target of an unstoppable supernatural entity. As the entity takes the form of random people, slowly but relentlessly stalking her and her friends through the Detroit area, she grapples with the fact that she will only be able to escape the curse she has inherited by passing it on to someone else through sex.
Also starring Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe, It Follows was snapped up by Radius-TWC, the genre arm of The Weinstein Company, following its premiere to rave reviews at Cannes. Regarded as one of the best horror films of the 2010s, the project launched Monroe to stardom and made a studio director of Mitchell, all while grossing around $23M against a reported budget of a little more than a million.
Set to co-produce They Follow alongside Good Fear Content and release the film domestically, Neon’s Tom Quinn has been teasing the sequel since his time heading up Radius-TWC more than a decade ago. Development on the project was officially confirmed in 2023, with Mitchell again set to direct from his own script. He’s also producing alongside Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content, plus It Follows alums David Kaplan, Erik Rommesmo, Rebecca Green and Laura Smith.
They Follow is eyeing a summer start. News of Ackie’s talks for the film comes ahead of the August 14 release of Mitchell’s latest feature, the Warner Bros. sci-fi flick The End of Oak Street, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor.
One of today’s most in-demand actresses, Ackie is coming off an Independent Spirit Award win for her supporting turn in Sorry, Baby, the A24 drama from Eva Victor. Recently seen in projects like Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, Chris Columbus’s The Thursday Murder Club, and Zoë Kravitz’s lauded directorial debut Blink Twice, she can currently be seen starring opposite Keke Palmer, Taylour Paige, and Poppy Liu in Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, also from Neon.
Next up, Ackie stars opposite Tom Rhys Harries in the DC body horror Clayface, releasing October 23. She is repped by B-Side Management, CAA, Range Media Partners, and Peikoff Mahan.