Happy Death Day 2U was recently released in theaters by Universal Pictures. A sequel to Happy Death Day, the film expands on the mythology established in the late-2017 flick that preceded it, explaining exactly why main character Tree experienced a deadly time loop. Due to the film’s low-budget, courtesy of genius producer Jason Blum, you can expect Happy Death Day 2U to rake in just enough cash for the sequel that is set up in the mid-credit scene. But Happy Death Day wasn’t always intended to be a franchise.
In fact, the film was first written and developed at a time when modern “cinematic universes” were just in the budding stages. Here’s how the Happy Death Day franchise evolved to become a two-part series and may potentially become a trilogy.
Happy Death Day was originally written and conceived by comic book writer Scott Lobdell under the title Half to Death. The title was changed during the script optioning process to Hell Week, and then back to Half to Death after the script was purchased by Rogue Pictures in 2007. At the time, Rogue Pictures was a subsidiary of Focus Features, whose films are distributed through Universal Pictures. Confusing, right? Keep reading. Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes came on board with Rogue Pictures to help produce the film, and Megan Fox was attached to star as Tree, with Finnish director Antti Jokinen planning to direct.
Through the mystery of Hollywood’s many “development hell” situations, the project fell through and nothing was heard about Half to Death until October 2016, nearly a decade after the project was first announced. It was suddenly revealed that Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions had revived the project. At the time, the movie was still being called Half to Death, and many aspects of the final film were announced, including the new director and cast.
The original script for Happy Death Day was much closer to its horror/slasher roots. The basic premise was the same, but director Christopher Landon has revealed that he changed many aspects of Scott Lobdell’s story. Among the changes, Landon added the character of Carter to provide a romantic interest for Tree. Landon also changed the killer from Gregory and Lori in the original script, to Lori acting alone, originally trying to kill Tree with a poisonous cupcake, and later attempting to use the killer in the hospital as a cover-up for murdering Tree herself.
“Half to Death” began filming in late 2016, and news about the project was quiet until the summer of 2017 when Universal released a brief teaser for the movie. With the release of this twenty second trailer, it was revealed the title for the project had once again (and finally) been changed to Happy Death Day. Just a few days after releasing the teaser for the film, the full trailer was put out just in time for theatrical screenings of another horror film, 47 Meters Down.
Happy Death Day hit theaters on Friday, October 13th, 2017 and took the number one spot at the box-office, raking in $26M, five times its production budget. The movie would go on to gross a whopping $125M at the worldwide box office. At this point, a sequel was a no-brainer. Director Christopher Landon began teasing the idea of a sequel during the press tour for Happy Death Day, but was cautiously optimistic about the idea. He kept any details about the sequel hush-hush, but the sequel was officially announced by Universal in May 2018 when filming began.
With Happy Death Day 2U now in theaters, it’s clear to viewers that this franchise wants to keep expanding. The film reveals that the time loop caused in the first movie was due to a quantum reactor that the character Ryan and his friends had created called SISSY. After much trial and error, and many plot twists and turns, Tree and her friends figure out how to program SISSY to end the time loop once and for all.
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But the final surprise of Happy Death Day 2U comes in the form of a mid-credits scene. A few members from DARPA show up at Tree’s college and escort her and her friends to their facility. There, the organization reveals that they are now in possession of SISSY and want to begin testing the machine as a means of psychological warfare. However, they can’t think of a good test subject. That’s when Tree mentions she might know the right person for testing, and viewers are treated to a shot of Danielle waking up in bed screaming.
It’s obvious from watching Happy Death Day 2U that Christopher Landon not only wants to almost completely remove this franchise from its original slasher roots, but that he also has a penchant for comedy with sci-fi elements.
The first Happy Death Day retained many of its horror aspects that were likely there from Landon re-writing Scott Lobdell’s script. It had a much more sinister tone throughout, with bits and pieces of comedy thrown into the mix. But with this sequel, Landon writes his script entirely from scratch, and with that, Happy Death Day 2U almost feels like it has no connection to the original film, even though it’s very much a direct continuation of that story.
The tonal shift between the two films would likely be extremely jarring if a viewer were to watch the film’s back-to-back. And while the change of tone isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it almost leads one to think what a sequel from a team-up with Christopher Landon and Scott Lobdell would’ve been like, instead of Landon completely taking over writing duties. With a possible third film being teased in the credits of Happy Death Day 2U, only time will tell if and when that film will be made, and exactly what the plot will entail.
Happy Death Day 2U is in theaters now from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions.
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