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We just learned the news that ‘The Strangers Chapter 1’, the first film in the new ‘The Strangers’ trilogy, will be released on May 17, 2024. For some, it might come as a surprise to learn that a reboot of ‘The Strangers’ is coming our way. Even more astonishing is the fact that all three films in the trilogy have already been completed. In this article we share more information on what we know so far about ‘The Strangers’ Trilogy.

The story revolves around Maya and Ryan, played by Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez, who embark on a cross-country journey to start a new chapter in their lives. Their adventure takes a nightmarish turn when their car breaks down, forcing them to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb. The couple soon finds themselves in a fight for survival against three masked assailants.

Director Renny Harlin, inspired by his admiration for the 2008 original, embarked on a journey he felt he couldn’t pass up. “I remember the experience of seeing it,” he told Entertainment Weekly in October 2023. “I didn’t really know anything about it when I saw it and I just loved it. I thought it was fantastic and it’s stuck in my mind as one of my favorite horror films.” Harlin continued: “When this opportunity came to me, the idea of not doing a remake or a reboot but doing a trilogy based on the original film, I thought it was an incredible opportunity.”

So, will the trilogy be a remake or a reboot? Harlin clarified this, explaining that the first film is a fairly faithful re-imagining of the original ‘Strangers’ movie (complete with similar masks), updated for 2023. However, unlike the original movie, which ends with everyone just driving away, the new trilogy will continue to follow the story. Harlin does not want there to be any “unanswered questions” at the end of the trilogy.

“In the beginning of the [original] movie, you find that Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are fighting, you never find out what they’re fighting about,” he noted in October 2023. “We can answer questions here. We spent a lot of our time fine tuning how to answer those questions for original fans, how to make sure that there are a lot of pieces of homage to the original fans and that they are excited and feel like they’re along for the same ride that they’ve loved forever while making it more modern, making it longer, and answering questions.”

Filming the trilogy was a monumental task, with all three movies shot simultaneously in Bratislava, Slovakia. Harlin describes this as a challenge of a lifetime. “I also really embraced it. On a Monday morning, I could be shooting the second chapter, and Monday afternoon I could be shooting the first chapter, and Tuesday morning I could be shooting the third chapter,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It was incredibly demanding for the actors, for the continuity in terms of the make-up and wardrobe, and for my director of photography, because we wanted to create a visual language that develops so that the movies get bigger, more epic, as we go [on]. It just kept all of our juices pumping all the time.”

Harlin additionally revealed that the identities of the killers will indeed be disclosed in the film. If you would like to learn more about what inspired the script for ‘The Strangers’, you can read our other article: ‘3 Disturbing Real-Life Stories That Inspired ‘The Strangers’.