Horror fans either discovered Bird Box at their local bookstores or on their Netflix homepage, but either way, it’s hard to deny that the story took the world by storm. First with memes, then with the Bird Box challenge that caused a lot of bodily harm, and plenty of online speculation about what happens next. Have no fear – author Josh Malerman announced in his Esquire interview that a sequel is coming, called Malorie.
For those who haven’t gotten around to it yet, Bird Box follows Malorie, mother to Girl and Boy (they are unnamed for reasons), as she attempts to navigate a world of monsters. Specifically, monsters that can drive people to suicide if you look at them. As such, much of the remaining human population has resorted to staying indoor and covering the windows, or going outside blindfolded.
Malorie will follow Malorie along her journey, still on the move even though the end of Bird Box made it look like she and her kids have reached their final destination. There’s no word as to whether or not we’ll learn about the origins of the monsters…or other characters. In fact, the book is going to focus mainly on Malorie and her story, so don’t start coming up with theories about your favorites coming back just yet.
Malerman was inspired to do a sequel after watching the Netflix adaptation starring Sandra Bullock, as he explains in the interview: “I wanted to get to know [Malorie] even better. At the end of the movie, I turned to my girl Allison and said, ‘I want to know what happens next!’ and she’s like, ‘Well, you know, you could make that happen,’ so it really was this warm feeling.”
Fans of the movie are also likely hoping this means that Netflix will work on creating a sequel to the film, though there hasn’t been any talk about it from their end.
Malorie is set to arrived at all major book retailers on October 1, 2019.