After A Quiet Place came out, writer/director/star John Krasinski was adamant he wouldn’t be returning for a sequel. He’d be happy to see one made, but his involvement was going to be minimal.
That, uh, changed, and now Krasinski is writing the sequel himself. What happened? According to a new interview with Deadline, it was all a matter of getting an idea stuck in his head.
“I’ll be honest with you: I really didn’t want to do the sequel. It was never built to launch sequels, which we all knew, and the studio knew too. But also, I’m a realist. I know that when you have a success like this, everyone wants to make another one,” Krasinski said. “I told them to go find another filmmaker and writer, and they said, “But don’t you have an idea?” I said, “Yeah, I have a tiny idea,” so they said, “OK, while we’re talking to other people, keep thinking about it. They basically mind-tricked me into wanting to write it.”
He clarified, explaining that his idea originated around the idea of how sequels generally do and don’t work.
“I’m writing now—I don’t have it fleshed out—but the thought that occurred to me, that really excited me about it, was that most sequels are about the return of a hero or a villain. You take this character that people loved once and you bring them back, and you have to create a new world around them. We have the exact opposite setup. We have the world, and you can drop whoever you want into that world and everyone feels connected to it. The reason I decided to go back, in the end, was this world is so rich, and it’s so much fun to explore,” he said.
That’s the thing about writers. Once we have an idea in our heads, it’s hard to get it out. And that, friends, is how you get a creative person to do what you want. Use this knowledge wisely.