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The actor discusses his return as the masked killer and explains why he doesn't generally believe in sequels. Ethan Hawke dreams of a Black Phone trilogy: 'I'd

The actor discusses his return as the masked killer and explains why he doesn't generally believe in sequels.

Ethan Hawke dreams of a Black Phone trilogy: 'I'd like to go to hell with the Grabber'

The actor discusses his return as the masked killer and explains why he doesn't generally believe in sequels.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in *Vanity Fair*, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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October 17, 2025 3:44 p.m. ET

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Ethan Hawke as the Grabber in 'Black Phone 2'. Credit:

Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures and Blumhouse

- Ethan Hawke doesn't believe in sequels, but he got aboard *Black Phone 2*, returning as the masked killer known as the Grabber.

- The actor talks about his double-feature weekend in theaters with *Blue Moon*.

- Hawke shares his idea for a Grabber trilogy: 'I would like to go to hell with the Grabber.'

Ethan Hawke is having his own mini Barbenheimer moment. Let's call it his Black-and-Blue Weekend.

The actor stars in two wildly different feature films opening in theaters now. One is the horror sequel *Black Phone 2*, in which he returns as the masked child-napping serial killer from Scott Derrickson's 2021 film. The other is *Blue Moon*, the dialogue-heavy character piece from his longtime pal Richard Linklater in which he plays 5-foot-tall Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart.

"I have *The Lowdown*, too!" Hawke points out, referring to his performance as citizen journalist Lee "truthstorian" Raybon in the ongoing FX series. "So I got a big TV show, a horror movie, and an arthouse movie."

Hawke speaks with ** backstage at Manhattan's Javits Center for New York Comic Con, where he's going to help present *Black Phone 2* to the gathered fans at the Blumhouse panel, one week out from his double-feature theatrical weekend. (*The Lowdown* aside.) Both titles hail from directors with whom Hawke has maintained a strong relationship. He made more than a dozen movies with Linklater, starting with 1990's *Slacker,* and his horror journey with Derrickson kicked off with *Sinister* (2012).

Maskless Ethan Hawke on the set of 'Black Phone 2' with director Scott Derrickson.

Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures and Blumhouse

Ethan Hawke's Grabber returns from the dead in 'Black Phone 2' trailer

Ethan Hawke was 'stunned' by Robert Redford rejecting him for movie role

The *Training Day* and *Before* trilogy star references Marlon Brando when he says, "At its best, an actor is an extension of the director's imagination; you have to spiritually marry them. When you're resisting a director, it's kind of like resisting the captain of a ship. You can do it, but you'll break the whole ship."

For *Black Phone 2*, Hawke had no idea how exactly Derrickson would continue the story of the first film, which was inspired by Joe Hill's short story. The actor remembers killing time at an airport when he got a call from the writer-director. By the time he hung up, he was on board with Derrickson's vision.

"I don't really believe in sequels, as a theory," Hawke says. "I'm just not into them 'cause so often they turn into corporate money grabs." In this case, Derrickson "turned it into a project that's pushed him as a director," he continues. "It's so innovative and creative, and Scott's flexing his muscles with the movies. I was so impressed about how *not* of a corporate money grab the film is. It's clearly a film with something to say. It's pushing the boundaries. It surpasses the first film. I would say it's a sequel, the way *Road Warrior*'s a sequel to *Mad Max*. It's more complicated, bigger budget, but it's spiritually evolving."

The sequel picks up in 1982, four years after Finney (Mason Thames) killed the Grabber with help from the ghosts of the previous victims, their voices speaking to Fin through a non-functional black rotary phone in the basement where he was kept. Now in his teens, Fin struggles to cope with the trauma of what happened, but the story refocuses around his sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who experiences strange visions in her dreams that cause her to sleepwalk.

Gwen (Madeline McGraw) is stalked by the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) in 'Black Phone 2'.

Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures and Blumhouse

These premonitions lead her and Fin to Alpine Lake, the site of a Christian winter camp in the Rocky Mountains. There, they learn of a startling connection between the Grabber and their own family history. And, of course, Hawke's killer, sporting a smiling horned mask, is there to stalk them from beyond the grave.

"I can't think of another sequel that inverts the main character," Hawke comments. "I thought it took real balls."

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The logistics of the Grabber's return are so obvious to Hawke in hindsight: following a movie about a kid communing with dead spirits, he's now on the other side of the black phone. Freddy Krueger from the *Nightmare on Elm Street* movies immediately comes to mind, as the Grabber can physically harm Gwen in her dreams.

"It wears its influences on its sleeve," Hawke acknowledges. "It functions more as the stuff of legend. Human beings have been telling ghost stories for as long as we've told stories. We're also curious about what happens when we pass. Now we're in that territory of, what is the spiritual relationship to a dead person? I'm not really playing him anymore. I'm playing some spirit-world version of him. So it's much more fantastical in my mind. He just came to symbolize sin."

Ethan Hawke's Grabber in 'Black Phone 2'.

Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures and Blumhouse

Derrickson shot Gwen's dream sequences using 16mm cameras to create a visual distinction that's more retro and grainy than the waking world. However, it caused a plethora of issues during production. "First of all, they broke constantly," Hawke recalls. "And you don't get to have a monitor the same way. It was really complicated. We had to do a bunch of reshoots 'cause the lab screwed up. It was difficult to do. Nobody's used to processing those tools anymore."

He remembers having a similar issue on *Boyhood*. "We shot it with the same cameras, the whole movie," he says of that 2014 drama with Linklater that filmed over the course of years. "By the time we were finishing, people didn't know how to change the film, they didn't know how to clean the mag, they didn't know how to develop the film. You were running into so many tactile problems. So I think it was more challenging than Scott wanted when he had the idea, but the end result is fantastic."

Hawke never imagined the first *Black Phone* would be so commercially successful that it would prompt the studio to ask for another. Should Blumhouse and Universal return to ask for yet another, assuming people go out to see the sequel, Hawke does see a trilogy in here somewhere.

"I've read other scripts that they've worked on, even *Doctor Strange*," Hawke says of Derrickson and the filmmaker's writing partner C. Robert Cargill. "Genre's a great place to play, and every genre is kind of a sequel, in a way, because you're building off such preexisting expectations. I would like to go to hell with the Grabber. That's what I'd like to do. I'd like to get to know him. That would be my dream for the third one, to let it be a character piece about what made him, who he is now, and how he's haunting other people's dreams."

*Black Phone 2* is now playing in theaters.**

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