A Prequel to ‘Weapons’ Is On The Way

Weapons, the year’s biggest word-of-mouth horror hit, is coming back for seconds.

Director Zach Cregger announced on Monday that he is working with Warner Bros on a prequel to the creepy supernatural flick that will explore the origin story of the film’s villain, Aunt Gladys.

He confirmed the rumors of a prequel in a new interview with Fangoria.

“It is real and I’ve been talking to Warner Bros. about it,” he said. “There’s a story and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s not bulls–t.”

He also added that talks on a prequel began before the movie even released—although it helps that Weapons was one of the year’s biggest unexpected success stories, taking in a gargantuan $263 million at the box office on a $40 million budget.

Weapons is the third most popular horror movie of the year, right behind Sinners and The Conjuring: Last Rites. It is Cregger’s second film. His first was Barbarian, which was another horror flick that went on to be a surprise box-office hit.

Cregger said he was “ready” for a second Weapons film before Warner Bros even approached him, saying “I had it kind of in my pocket before the movie came out.”

Rumors of a second Weapons were highly scrutinized online, as Cregger is set to venture into big-budget filmmaking soon when he adapts the popular video game franchise Resident Evil into a horror movie as his next project.

Oscar nominee Amy Madigan, who played the witch Aunt Gladys in the film, previously told Deadline she was game for a follow-up, although she wasn’t sure if it was real either.

“It’s not that I discount it, but in this business, nothing’s real ’til it’s real. I just had such a great time working with Zach and being inside that brain of his. That’s really the gift of how the movie came out,” she said. “The other stuff has to do with all sorts of conversations that I would never be privy in and business things like that. But, you know, I love Gladys, so I’ll leave it at that.”

Weapons is now available for rent on every video on demand service.