Bird Box type Movie genre Thriller

Here’s your next Bird Box challenge: Wait six months for a sequel.

Author Josh Malerman (whose new novel Inspection published this week) confirmed in an interview with Esquire on Monday that he will publish his next post-apocalyptic “Bird Box novel” on Oct. 1. And rather than focus on a new set of characters, judging by the title, Malorie, this follow-up will center even more squarely on the first book’s main character (played in the film by Sandra Bullock).

Malerman said as much in his interview with Esquire, explaining that it was actually watching Netflix’s film adaptation from last year which convinced him to revisit the character. “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.”

Of course, Malerman introduced plenty of intriguing characters in the original Bird Box, and knows some fans are clamoring for details on those in Malorie’s orbit. “In the time between Bird Box coming out and the time since I’ve been writing Malorie, I’ve been asked a ton of times: people want to know what happened with Boy and Girl,” he said to Esquire. “But as much as I care about Boy and Girl, this isn’t their story. The Bird Box world is Malorie’s story, and I wanted to know more about her.”

Bird Box, which originally published in 2014, debuted on Netflix just days before Christmas last year and emerged as one of its most popular movie originals to date. As to whether Malorie will capture (and terrorize) readers and viewers the same way, we’ll have to wait until this fall to find out.

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