Madelaine Petsch earned The Strangers: Chapter 2 executive producer credit with daily script edits

Director Renny Harlin shot an entire trilogy of Strangers movies at the same time, and while there was a point when it looked like Lionsgate might be releasing all three of the movies within 2024, that idea was clearly pushed aside. The Strangers: Chapter 1 (read our review HERE) reached theatres back in May of 2024, and The Strangers: Chapter 2 won’t be reaching theatres until this Friday, September 26, 2025. Part of the delay was the fact that the financial success of Chapter 1 allowed for Harlin and his cast and crew, who had completed principal photography on the trilogy in just 52 days, to go back for 8 days of additional photography on Chapter 2 and 15 days of addition photography on Chapter 3. During these shoots, star Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) earned an executive producer credit on the sequels by getting deeply involved in the creative process.

As Petsch explained to The Hollywood Reporter, “I actually did not have the credit at first. I was asked to be an actor in the film, and I wholeheartedly said yes. I then came on set and said, ‘Hey guys, I have some script thoughts. Would you be willing to listen to them?’ And that ultimately became [producer] Courtney Solomon and I editing the script every day after set, going through shot lists with Renny [Harlin] and being more sewn into the fabric of the story in a producorial way. So they offered me the EP credit; it was not a vanity credit that I got. Usually, they’ll do that to pay actors less money because they don’t have a lot of money. They’ll be like, ‘We’ll give you an EP credit, which will help you, but it’s a vanity credit.’ So I got offered this credit because I was actually doing the work.“

Petsch is joined in the cast of the films by Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), Rachel Shenton (All Creatures Great and Small), Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy), and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Strangers: Chapter 1 centers on Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expanding the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels. Now, we’re on to the next chapter.

The new Strangers trilogy was filmed in Slovakia. Courtney Solomon produced them with Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Charlie Dombeck, and Alastair Birlingham. Andrei Boncea, Dorothy Canton, and Roy Lee serve as executive producers. Rafaella Biscayn, Frame Film SK, Johanna Harlin, Juan Garcia Peredo, and Alberto Burgueno are co-producing. 

Harlin has said The Strangers: Chapter 1 “is close to the original movie in its set-up of a young couple in an isolated environment in a house and a home invasion happening for random reasons.” Then Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 “explore what happens to the victims of this kind of violence and who the perpetrators are of this kind of violence. Where are they coming from and why?“ Harlin has previously said that viewer feedback was taken into account when they were making changes and enhancing the sequels in the additional photography process.

Despite the additional photography, JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols was not impressed with The Strangers: Chapter 2, giving the film a 4/10 review that can be read HERE.

Are you looking forward to The Strangers: Chapter 2, now enhanced by additional photography and complete with a Madelaine Petsch executive producer credit? Let us know by leaving a comment.

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