Elisabeth Moss on ‘The Invisible Man 2’: The Sequel Refuses to Stay Hidden
Back in February 2020—mere weeks before the pandemic shuttered theaters—Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man became that rare horror miracle: a modest $7 million production that clawed its way to nearly $144 million worldwide. Elisabeth Moss’s unnerving performance, part trauma study and part survival thriller, anchored a film that felt like Cronenberg filtered through indie grit.
Now, more than four years later, Moss insists the sequel is alive, if not exactly visible. Speaking to ScreenRant, she confirmed: “We still want one, so we’re still working on it.” The roadblock? A script still in progress.
And then there’s the bigger question: without Whannell, is this even worth making?
No Whannell, No Center of Gravity
Whannell has made it clear he won’t return. In his words, the original film already had a “perfect” ending. He’s right. It was clean, cruel, and cathartic—rare closure in a genre that thrives on endless resurrections.
Hollywood, however, rarely lets a $144 million ghost vanish. Blumhouse has a long history of resurrecting franchises—sometimes brilliantly (Paranormal Activity), sometimes mechanically (Ouija: Origin of Evil). But Whannell’s exit feels seismic. Imagine The Babadook 2 without Jennifer Kent. Or Hereditary: The Sequel sans Ari Aster. The DNA mutates, the center collapses.
The Blumhouse Factor
Blumhouse thrives on microbudget alchemy: make it cheap, make it fast, reap the box office. But even they’ve hit snags. M3GAN 2.0 stumbled this summer, proving not every viral horror hit translates to franchise sustainability. You’d think that might temper sequel mania. Doubtful.
Moss is a heavyweight—her presence guarantees attention. Yet horror sequels built around a lead actor, not a director’s vision, tend to sag. Think The Ring Two. Think Poltergeist III. And then think of how many times Universal has fumbled its monster IPs trying to reboot them.
Leigh Whannell: A Career at a Crossroads
Whannell’s absence is both frustrating and fascinating. He’s one of the few modern genre directors who understands tension as texture. Upgrade (2018) remains a cult masterpiece—a brutal, techno-body horror experiment that felt like Verhoeven on a Red Bull bender.
But his recent Wolf Man drew mixed reviews, and it’s clear he doesn’t want to remain locked inside Blumhouse’s IP vault. He’s already attached to The Green Hornet and Kato, which he hopes to both write and direct. Not exactly the most exciting move after proving himself capable of auteur-level work. Then again, maybe that’s the career paradox: leap from indie darling to studio hand, and somewhere in the middle you find your footing.
What This Means for Horror Fans
So, The Invisible Man 2 exists—at least as a concept. Moss is in. A script is cooking. But Whannell’s refusal looms over it all. Can Blumhouse replicate the alchemy without him? History suggests not.
As a fan, I’m torn. Part of me wants Moss to dive back into this world, because her performance was electric. The other part says: let sleeping monsters stay dead. Maybe the beauty of Whannell’s Invisible Man was that it left us with no dangling threads. No cliffhanger. Just finality. And horror rarely gifts us that.
Anyway—would you actually want to see a sequel without him?
5 Things You Should Know About ‘The Invisible Man 2’
Elisabeth Moss confirms it’s still happening
The actress told ScreenRant that work on the script continues.
Leigh Whannell won’t return
The director has ruled himself out, calling the original ending “perfect.”
Blumhouse is behind it
The studio rarely lets a sub-$10M hit rest, despite mixed results with other sequels.
Script still in development
No release date, no production start—just pages being drafted.
Whannell’s future lies elsewhere
He’s focused on The Green Hornet and Kato and distancing himself from Blumhouse sequels.
