Lights Out 2 Plot Details Revealed By Director As Horror Sequel Remains In Development Hell

The original plan for Lights Out 2 has been revealed by director David F. Sandberg. 2016’s Lights Out, which was based on Sandberg’s 2013 short film of the same name, followed Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), who fought to defend her half-brother Martin (Gabriel Bateman) from a malicious entity named Diana (Alicia Vela-Bailey), who only appears when the lights are out. The movie had a sequel greenlit a week after its release, which eventually saw the movie earn a total of $148.9 million off its $5 million budget. However, the project found itself in production hell with little progress being made.

Per Collider, David F. Sandberg spoke about the delayed Lights Out 2 during a recent Q&A at a screening of the original movie. He revealed that the original plan for the sequel is no longer feasible because Bateman is “not young anymore.” However, it would have involved Diana haunting a new family before the original characters arrived to “be the experts” and “help defeat‘” the spirit. Read Sandberg’s full quote below:

In that draft, Martin was still young, and he’s not young anymore. He’s like a man now, you know. No, but she was sort of attacking a new family, but then this cast got involved to sort of help out with that. Because, I mean, you kind of have to do that. Because the fun thing with a horror movie is the discovery when the haunting starts, and you don’t know what’s going on. So, if she just comes back to this cast, like, “Well, yeah, we know who Diana is. We’ve dealt with her before.” So if you have a different family at first, then they can go through all that, but then you can have this cast come in and sort of, you know, be the experts to help defeat.

The Original Lights Out 2 Plan Could Still Work

Despite the original movie’s success, there are quite a few reasons that Lights Out 2 hasn’t come to fruition. This includes the fact that, after his follow-up horror movie Annabelle: Creation, Sandberg found himself in the orbit of DC Studios as the director of both Shazam! and its sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods. As time has dragged on without the movie going into production, Gabriel Bateman especially has aged out of his original role. The actor – who recently appeared in The Mosquito Coast and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans – is now 19 years old.

However, the age of the Lights Out cast might not have to affect the sequel’s prospects as much as Sandberg implies. There is quite a bit of precedent for the narrative structure Sandberg refers to in the original draft, with original characters returning to help new families with their supernatural afflictions. This includes a franchise Sandberg himself has participated in, The Conjuring Universe, which has its main branch follow paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) as they help families around the world battle demonic entities.

If enough time passes, Lights Out 2 could potentially even be considered a legacy sequel. Legacy sequels like Scream (2022) and The Exorcist: Believer have used the presence of original characters alongside a fresh-faced cast to to pass the torch and endeavor to keep the franchise going strong. If either Palmer or Bateman would come back at any age to help conquer the Lights Out spirit Diana, their presence could help cement the sequel in the franchise’s legacy, however long they are actually onscreen.