Haunted Mansion 2: Will It Happen? Everything We Know (2024)

Haunted Mansion 2, the sequel to the 2023 Haunted Mansion, has yet to be confirmed by Disney - but that doesn't mean it's off the table. It would follow the movie adaptation of the Disney theme park ride and reboot of Eddie Murphy's ill-fated 2003 attempt to start the franchise. The new Haunted Mansion stars Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Academy Award winner Jared Leto, to name a few. With a list of such Hollywood heavyweights attached to the franchsie, there's speculation over whether Haunted Mansion 2 is on the horizon.

While Disney found success with Pirates of the Caribbean, a series that built such a rich world despite being based on a theme park ride, the studio has struggled with Haunted Mansion. The original 2003 Haunted Mansion movie made $180 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), but that was still an underperformance in Disney's eyes. A much darker reboot helmed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) then fell into development hell in the 2010s. However, Disney finally settled for the more straightforward spooky family comedy led by LaKeith Stanfield that is 2023's Haunted Mansion — and it could lead to a Haunted Mansion 2.

Most Recent Haunted Mansion 2 News

There hasn't been much recent news on Haunted Mansion 2, though this is likely because the 2023 movie was considered a box-office disaster for Disney. While the future of the latest attempt at a franchise based on the Haunted Mansion ride doesn't look hopeful, Haunted Mansion 2 shouldn't be ruled out just yet. The 2023 Haunted Mansion arrived on Disney+ on October 4, 2023. Should the movie perform well on streaming it's possible that the House of Mouse could reconsider the future of a Haunted Mansion sequel as a Disney+ exclusive.

Haunted Mansion 2 Is Not Confirmed

A Haunted Mansion sequel is not confirmed. The movie's box-office performance dictates whether the studio will greenlight a sequel, which, based on the projections, is incredibly far from a guarantee. Given Haunted Mansion's budget of over $150 million (via The Numbers), factoring in marketing costs and the movie theaters' cut, the movie needed around $350 million to break even. It failed to come close to this, making barely $114 million in worldwide gross.

However, Haunted Mansion director Justin SImien has commented on the possibility of a follow-up. When asked if he'd want to direct Haunted Mansion 2, the filmmaker responded, "Absolutely," before explaining:

My favorite thing about being a director is building the world around the story so that you feel like, 'Okay, after the story ends and before the story begins, there's still a world there.' That's my favorite part. And so there's a lot of things that we set up in the movie and a lot of places that we just point to as being over there, but we don't necessarily go all the way in that particular room or go all the way into that particular mansion. So I think that there is plenty, plenty more story left, plenty more mysteries to discover in the mansion itself.

Whether Simien gets his wish likely depends on how the 2023 movie fares. The most recent Haunted Mansion film arrived on Disney+ in early October 2023, just in time for Halloween. If the spooky family comedy proves to be a hit with subscribers, Haunted Mansion 2 could be an appealing prospect for Disney as a lower-budget Disney+ exclusive.

Haunted Mansion 2 Cast

Given that the Haunted Mansion sequel has yet to be greenlit, it's hard to say who the Haunted Mansion 2 cast will be. Nevertheless, if the sequel does get confirmed, it will likely follow LaKeith Stanfield's Haunted Mansion character, Ben, along with the oddball characters he met in the first movie. At the end of the movie, Ben, Gabbie (Rosario Dawson), Father Kent (Owen Wilson), Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito), all reunite for a Halloween party at the mansion, so it's likely that these actors would reprise their roles in the Haunted Mansion sequel too.

Haunted Mansion 2 Story

When discussing the sequel, director Justin Simien also noted, "I think that there is plenty, plenty more story left, plenty more mysteries to discover in the mansion itself." Based on his comments, it seems as if the Haunted Mansion 2 story will follow the same ensemble cast discovering something new in the mansion. The eccentric characters became friends with the ghosts at the end of Haunted Mansion, so it will be a challenge to raise the stakes for a follow-up. However, Haunted Mansion definitely leaves the door open for a sequel, as the ghosts can continue to seek the humans' help, and the sequel can pick up right where Haunted Mansion left off; at the Halloween party reunion.