Jessica Rothe Officially Confirms Return Plans for Hit Time-Loop Thriller Trilogy

If there was one thing missing from the classic Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, it was its disappointing lack of gore. Sure, Phil Connors killed himself a few times to try to escape the endless time loop he was stuck in, but those deaths were more funny than bloody. Maybe it’s just not that kind of movie.

The 2017 slasher stars Jessica Rothe as Tree, a college student who gets stuck in a time loop on her birthday, which concludes with her murder. Each day she has to wake up and live through her birthday again, which keeps on leading to her death. There’s plenty of blood and gore in the movie, which can also be said of its sequel, Happy Death Day 2U.

Both movies also have plenty of screams, brought to you by Rothe, who has taken on the mantle of “Scream Queen” in recent years. At New York Comic Con, Polygon caught up with Rothe, who was promoting her new film River, to see how she feels about the title, and where she and Christopher Landon, who directed the first Happy Death Day films, are at with a third installment. Polygon: To get started, can you give any kind of update on Happy Death Day 3?

Jessica Rothe: The main updates I can give are, back in April, Chris Landon and I got together and we broke the third film, which was such an honor that Chris would even ask me to do that with him. We've become quite close, but we both feel a different kind of ownership over the trilogy and over Tree and her story. It was really exciting, taking his original ideas and implementing them into a movie we're both excited about now.

Also, to be totally frank, I'm hoping that, with the acquisition of River and its hopeful success, that Universal reengages with the idea of the trilogy in a meaningful way. Because it's all there, we're just waiting for the powers-that-be to get the ball rolling. How do you feel about being called a scream queen?

I take it as a badge of honor. It's funny because I am the biggest chicken — I'm genuinely afraid of the dark. I would have never thought that this would be where I am.