One of The Best Horror Sequels of 2025 is Coming to Netflix on May 16

While horror sequels tend to fall short of their predecessors, Black Phone 2 is arguably one of the better examples to buck that trend, as even though it might lack the originality of the first movie, it makes up for it with heightened intensity and a noticeably meaner edge. The Ethan Hawke-led horror sequel is now finally headed to streaming, as the movie is currently slated to premiere on Netflix on May 16.

Set four years after the events of the first movie, the sequel sees Ethan Hawke’s Grabber haunting teenagers through the realm of dreams, drawing clear comparisons to Freddy Krueger. And considering Black Phone 2 was widely regarded as one of the strongest horror releases of last year, a year already packed with standout entries for the genre, it’s safe to say the movie should perform strongly once it arrives on the streamer.

Was Black Phone 2 a Box Office Hit?

Even though Scott Derickson‘s sequel fell inches short of the first movie, which grossed over $161 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), Black Phone 2 still performed well at the box office.

Throughout its theatrical run, Black Phone 2 grossed over $132 million worldwide from a modest budget of $30 million (via The Numbers). Combined with the fact that it was also a critical hit and amassed strong audience reception, it proved to be a success for Blumhouse Productions on every metric.

What makes this feat all the more impressive is that there were originally no plans to build upon the first movie, which Scott Derrickson conceived as its own standalone story. But thanks to Joe Hill‘s pitch (via THR), the director ended up committing to the sequel, and things couldn’t have worked out better for both fans and Blumhouse.

Will Scott Derrickson Return With Black Phone 3?

The Doctor Strange director has been vocal about focusing on one movie at a time, and similar to his approach to the first entry in the series, he was only concerned with the second movie during its production, revealing, “We haven’t had one conversation about a Black Phone 3, and I don’t know that we will” (via Polygon).

This isn’t to say he has written off the prospect of a threequel entirely, as the director did entertain the idea of a third movie with the original cast, only if there’s a story worth realizing, like The Black Phone 2.

Would we love to get the band back together? Absolutely. Would I love to explore those characters some more? I thought about it. But it all comes down to: Is there a good enough idea to justify us putting a year of our life into making that? When you commit to a movie, that becomes part of your life for at least a year. So it’s really got to be something really great and inspiring for us to want to make a third one.

Even though it’s hard to predict when a threequel might arrive, given Derrickson’s prowess as a filmmaker, it’s safe to say we’ll eventually see another follow-up down the line, with Hawke returning as the modern-day horror icon.

Movie	The Black Phone 2
Director	Scott Derrickson
Cast	Ethan Hawke; Mason Thames; Madeleine McGraw; Demián Bichir; Miguel Mora; Jeremy Davies; Arianna Rivas
IMDb (as of May 10)	6.0
Rotten Tomatoes Score (as of May 10)	72% | 82%
Runtime	1h 54m
Release Date	17 October 2025

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Black Phone 2 arrives on Netflix on May 16, 2026 (USA).