Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien is open to creating more sequels based in the world of the new Disney movie. Speaking to SFX magazine in the upcoming issue, which features Good Omens season 2 on the cover, the director says there's a lot of potential to expand in further films.
"It’s definitely in the realm of possibility," he tells us. "I sort of get my rocks off on world-building, so we certainly set up a lot that I think a lot of other stories could derive from and continue from. Not really up to me, but I definitely think there are possibilities there."
Indeed, Haunted Mansion has the daunting task of creating a movie based on a beloved Disney World ride. This means expanding a lot from the attraction and its many characters, which is something Simien says they took very carefully.
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He says he got to "lean into the source material, but take it to a new place". Simien continues, "We certainly get into the lore of the 999 haunts and particularly what brings these ghosts to this particular place – why this place versus other places. 'Can stuff like this happen?', we get into that a great deal.
"It was really just about expanding what we know and what we can see around the story just a bit further, but not filling in every blank. Certainly Hatbox Ghost, that was a big one. We’re pulling from what has been established, what really has been rumored, and tried to flesh him out and flesh that story out too. I think it’s really satisfying. But it also leaves the door open for a lot more."
Haunted Mansion is released on July 28 in the US and on August 11 in the UK.
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That's just a snippet of our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Good Omens season 2 on the cover and is available on newsstands from Wednesday, July 12. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
