Escape Room 2 In The Works, Original Director Returning

You're invited to play for your life... again. 

Columbia Pictures announced Monday that a sequel to Escape Room is officially in the works. 

Deadline confirmed the news, further detailing that original Escape Room director Adam Robitel — who's also known for writing Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, directing Insidious: The Last Key, and doing double duty as writer and director of The Taking of Deborah Logan, his feature directorial debut — is returning for the follow-up film. Joining Robitel for Escape Room 2, which doesn't yet have an official subtitle, are screenwriter Bragi F. Schut and Neal H. Moritz, who produced the first movie. 

In addition to tapping Robitel, Schut, and Moritz for the sequel, Columbia also dated it for an April 17, 2020 debut.

The studio didn't reveal anything regarding the sequel's story or cast, avoiding confirming or denying whether original actors Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Jay Ellis, Deborah Ann Woll, or Tyler Labine would be involved in Escape Room 2. Considering that (major spoiler alert here) the only characters to survive the events of the first film, released just a few weeks ago on January 4, were Russell's Zoey and Miller's Ben, it's safe to assume that A) they will be the only two actors to return for the sequel, and B) that the story will center around them. 

Those who saw the first Escape Room — which follows a group of six strangers who are lured into a Minos Escape Room facility with the promise of $10,000 going to the winner, and who quickly learn that the escape room is actually deadly one and the "prize" is making it out alive — will remember that the plot wrapped up with Zoey and Ben killing the Game Master (played by Yorick van Wageningen) and then going to the police to detail their horrific experience. Law enforcement officers find no evidence of the escape room, and thus don't believe a word of their story. 

Flash forward six months, and Zoey and Ben are still convinced that the Minos Escape Room company are trying to get away with their dastardly acts. Bent on bringing the murderous business down and making the evildoers behind the operation pay for what they've done, Zoey and Ben hop on a flight to New York City, where the Minos headquarters are located. But the duo aren't as smart as they seem, as the new Game Master has trapped them inside another puzzle: the plane taking them to the Big Apple. 

Unless director Robitel and scribe Schut are taking the burgeoning Escape Room franchise in a completely different direction and abandoning the cliffhanger-y ending of the first flick in favor of following a brand-new set of strangers for the sequel, it seems pretty obvious that Escape Room 2 will likely pick up immediately where the original left off — and see the majority of the action take place on a plane. (Can we get a Samuel L. Jackson cameo? Or at least a reference to that iconic line in Snakes on a Plane? Please, we beg of you, Columbia Pictures.)

Though Escape Room only just opened last month and is still on its theatrical run in many locations, the film has already proven itself incredibly profitable. The psychological horror pic cost a mere $9 million to make, and it's made nearly $119 million globally since its debut. Columbia obviously sees Escape Room as a cash-making IP, and is quickly capitalizing on it before the trend fizzles out and audience attention is steered elsewhere. 

We'll keep you in the loop on all things Escape Room 2 as more details are revealed. In the meantime, count down the days until the movie launches in theaters on April 17, 2020.