Thanksgiving 2 Gets Exciting New Script Details & Major Character Return Confirmed 3 Years Later

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Jalen Thomas Brooks has offered some new details about “Thanksgiving 2,” although a release date hasn’t been announced yet.

Taking inspiration from a fake trailer created by Eli Roth for the Grindhouse films, the 2023 horror movie Thanksgiving is set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where a killer dressed as pilgrim John Carver begins a violent spree. The murders are connected to a past event. The film received good reviews and earned $46.6 million at the box office, more than triple its $15 million production cost. Because of this success, a sequel, Thanksgiving 2, was quickly approved, initially planned for 2025, but has since faced multiple delays.

Jalen Thomas Brooks, who played Bobby in the first Thanksgiving movie, recently spoke with Grant Hermanns from ScreenRant about returning for the sequel. He confirmed that the entire cast, including himself, is set to reprise their roles. Brooks also shared that the script is finished, though he hasnā€™t read it yet, and that director Eli Roth has exciting plans for the new film.

I’ve spoken with Eli about the project, and he’s promising something truly fresh and different. He wants to create a slasher film that will actually leave audiences wanting a sequel. We’ll see Bobby again, and some long-standing questions ā€“ particularly surrounding Jessica and Ryan ā€“ will finally be addressed. It feels like a satisfying conclusion, and there are some exciting things in store.

Although the first Thanksgiving film did well and a sequel was planned for 2025, development has taken longer than anticipated. Over the past three years, director Eli Roth has shared updates, confirming plans to bring back Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, and Milo Manheim as their characters from the original movie. However, details about the rest of the cast and plot remain uncertain.

Previously, Roth stated that getting the actors’ schedules to align was the main reason production on Thanksgiving 2 hadn’t started. Rae has been working on the movie Animal Friends, as well as her music career. Verlaque is starring in the MGM+ series American Classic, and Manheim will play Flynn in the upcoming live-action Tangled remake.

Interestingly, Brooks recently confirmed that Bobby will be back for the next movie, which fans expected given how Thanksgiving ended. After Jessica survived discovering Sheriff Eric Newlon (played by Patrick Dempsey) was the killer, she reconnected with Ryan, but the film also hinted at unresolved feelings between her and Bobby, suggesting they might explore getting back together.

Besides Bobby’s return, director Eli Roth interestingly describes Thanksgiving 2 as a concluding chapter for the series. Roth isn’t typically known for making franchise films, except for the Hostel movies, which he’s currently rebooting as a TV series for Peacock with Paul Giamatti. This suggests he might believe there’s enough story potential for a sequel and a satisfying ending.

It’s possible that Thanksgiving 2 won’t be the end of the Thanksgiving franchise, just the end for characters like Bobby and the other original survivors. Many horror series continue with new stories and characters, often focusing on the killer’s legacy, and director Eli Roth could do the same. He could wrap up the current charactersā€™ storylines and then introduce a new killer wearing the John Carver mask in a future movie.

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2026-03-27 23:21