'Escape Room 2' Plots 2022 Release Date After Delays

Escape Room 2 has set its new release date following delays in production amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Columbia Pictures thriller has set a Jan. 7, 2022 release date following the $155 million box office success of the first film that came out in 2019. Adam Robitel will direct the movie, with Wil Honley, Maria Melnik and Daniel Touch writing the screenplay. The sequel was preparing for a 2021 release before pushing back its premiere to the next year.

Taylor Russell and Logan Miller will be back to star on a cast that saw many of its faces meet an untimely end in the first one. Joining the cast will be Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Isabelle Fuhrman, Carlito Olivero and Thomas Cocquerel. The first installment saw the six characters placed in an escape room that is later revealed to be all part of a grand scheme that sees people on the outside viewing and betting on the outcome for sport. Eventually, just two of the six make it out in the end, setting up the sequel's likely storyline as the two survivors attempt to lead police to the scene of the crime before realizing that everything was abandoned before they got there. The end of the first movie sees another escape room being set up by Minos, the company behind the game. With the sequel being pushed back, so, too, has the trailer release.

In an interview with Bloody-Disgusting, Robitel talked about the challenges that lie ahead in producing a second film centered around the same escape room concept. "It's really tough," he explained. "We did fire, gravity, ice, cold, gas so we need to outdo ourselves now. We're in the box." He suggested things get tougher from here as he and his team attempt to construct another escape room idea that is fresh but also keeps in line with the franchise's outlook. Robitel then went into the movie's general idea being way more embedded in culture than some may even realize.

"We've never been in a time of such divisiveness as a culture, so we always love the idea," he said of the paranoia going on in the modern world. The "rich people" that viewers see taking part in the spectating of the escape room have been interpreted by some fans to represent the Illuminati. Robitel explained that Minos is just a "Machiavellian company" that knows everything about everyone. Escape Room is available for purchase on DVD and can be streamed on Hulu.