The meta sequel to ‘Truth or Dare,’ titled ‘Truth or Dare IRL,’ was in development but ultimately scrapped. Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, and other cast members were set to play themselves in the sequel, inspired by ‘Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.’
Is the ‘Truth or Dare’ Sequel Still in Development?
In an interview with Variety, Jeff Wadlow, director of ‘Truth or Dare,’ discussed his upcoming film ‘Imaginary‘ and revealed ambitious plans for a sequel that nearly began production during quarantine.
Wadlow said, “We actually wrote a ‘Truth or Dare’ sequel.” Wadlow added, “In the first one, there’s about nine characters, and seven of them die. I didn’t want to do a ‘Final Destination’-style sequel or ‘Truth or Dare’ and it’s happening again to a different group of people. It just seemed kind of boring to me.”
Wadlow continued, “So we wrote this script—’Truth or Dare IRL’—and it begins with Markie and Olivia, Lucy and Violett’s characters.” Wadlow added, “They’re in this scene, and it feels like our ‘Final Destination’ kind of ‘Truth or Dare’ scene, and Markie starts laughing in the middle of it. You hear, ‘Cut!’ and the director walks on the set, and we do the ‘New Nightmare’ treatment, where we reveal that Lucy and Violett are still friends. They’re going to go on this trip with the other actors from ‘Truth or Dare,’ Tyler, Landon, and Sam. Everyone who was in the first film, they’re all buddies, and we find out what happened: the writers of the first film had researched a real demon. Just as Calux can haunt a game in the film, he’s now decided to haunt a movie in the real world. It was scary, surreal, funny, and played a lot with subjectivity.”
Posey shared how the cast’s Big Bear trip sparked an impromptu creative process. Unable to directly sequel their characters’ deaths, Posey proposed the idea of them playing themselves at the original film’s premiere, followed by a trip to Big Bear where unexpected events unfold.
“We all died in the movie, so there was no way we could do a ‘Part 2,'” he said. “But I’ve been writing since I was a kid and directing and filming stuff with my friends, so I always kind of try to find the best creative route that we could turn into something. So I started thinking, ‘Well, what’s a cool way we could all be in “Part 2″ and still make it work?’ And we were on our way in the truck and I remember coming up with the idea of, ‘What if it’s about us? We’re at the premiere of the original movie and we’re playing ourselves.’ And then we all go on a trip to Big Bear, and while we’re there, some crazy shit happens. So they were like ‘Fuck yeah, that’s so fun.’ But I don’t know if anybody took it seriously, but the whole trip and Big Bear, I was like, ‘Oh God, I gotta define this idea, this concept — refine it and then pitch it to Jeff.’”
‘Truth or Dare’ is a 2018 supernatural horror film directed by Wadlow. It stars Hale, Posey, Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, and Landon Liboiron. The plot revolves around a group of college students who play a seemingly innocent game of truth or dare while on vacation in Mexico. However, the game takes a sinister turn when they realize that they must follow through with the dares or face deadly consequences. As they try to uncover the truth behind the game’s origins, they become trapped in a deadly cycle where the stakes continue to rise. The film has grossed over $95 million worldwide against its $3.5 million budget.
