Universal Dates ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s 2,’ ‘Woman In The Yard’ & ‘Drop’; ‘The Black Phone’, ‘M3GAN’ Sequels Pushed

Matt Grobar
·3 min read
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Universal Pictures on Thursday announced release dates for three major genre titles, revealing at the same time that two of its most anticipated sequels will shift on the calendar.

Blumhouse’s thriller The Woman in the Yard has been set to open on Friday, March 28, 2025, with Platinum Dunes and Blumhouse’s Drop debuting on Friday, April 11, 2025 and Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 to scare up box office on Friday, December 5, 2025.

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Meanwhile, Blumhouse’s The Black Phone 2 will shift from June 27, 2025 to Friday, October 17, 2025, with Blumhouse’s M3GAN 2.0 shifting from from May 16, 2025 into the June slot. All of the aforementioned will open wide.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and starring Danielle Deadwyler, who previously collaborated on the upcoming action thriller Carry On, The Woman in the Yard‘s plot is under wraps. Written by first-time feature screenwriter Sam Stefanak, the film also stars Russell Horsby, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson and Estella Kahiha. Jason Blum produced alongside Stephanie Allain (The Exorcist: Believer), with Deadwyler, Collet-Serra, Gabrielle Ebron, Scott Greenberg and James Moran serving as EPs.

Also without a logline for the moment, the thriller Drop from director Christopher Landon (We Have a Ghost) stars Meghann Fahy along with Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane Jacob Robinson and Ed Weeks. Written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach, pic is produced by Blum for Blumhouse and by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Cameron Fuller for Platinum Dunes. Ron Lynch and Sam Lerner are executive producers.

Shattering expectations last fall with a $300M worldwide gross, Five Night at Freddy’s adapts Scott Cawthon’s popular video game franchise of the same name and follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson), a troubled young man who reluctantly takes a job as a night security guard at an abandoned theme restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, hoping it will help him retain custody of his young sister. That fateful decision instead drags him into the black heart of a supernatural nightmare.

The highest-grossing horror film of 2023, its sequels plot hasn’t been disclosed. Emma Tammi has returned to direct, with Blum and Cawthon returning to produce.

Also launching a new blockbuster franchise, M3GAN watched as a robotics engineer at a toy company built a life-like doll that began to take on a life of its own. Directed by Gerard Johnstone and starring Allison Williams, Ronny Chieng and Violet McGraw, the film opened to $30.4 million domestic last January, garnering the biggest opening weekend for a PG-13 horror film since A Quiet Place Part II. In the end, the film grossed more than $180 million worldwide. Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Blumhouse’s Blum are producers on the sequel whose plot hasn’t been disclosed.

Finally, we have the The Black Phone 2, which follows up the serial killer pic starring Ethan Hawke which broke out as a phenomenon in 2022 with $160 million worldwide. No word on the story this time around, but Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies and Miguel Mora have returned to star.

Scott Derrickson is directing from his script written with frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill, with the duo producing alongside Blum. Joe Hill and Ryan Turek are executive producers.

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