Five years ago, horror fans were treated to the debut of writer/director Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day 2U, which only left people invested in Tree Gelbman’s journey through time and space wanting more. It’s been a while, but that hunger still exists, and it was fully demonstrated this week on social media.
Blumhouse, the company that produced both Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U, has celebrated an important day in the series’ lore, which has myself and other fans once again freshly begging for a Happy Death Day 3. It all started with the post below, which celebrates the in-canon birthday of Tree Gelbman (the character played by Jessica Rothe):
Hope this one's better than the last few pic.twitter.com/55s5K9vJ8GSeptember 18, 2024
While that feels like a bit of a tease for those of us who walked away from Happy Death Day 2U’s wild ending hoping for a next chapter, something else might be at work. For all we know, the party that got approval to create and run this post might be showing their exasperation that a hypothetical third round of time loopery hasn’t even been announced as in development.
But if you’re looking for “evidence” to confirm some new developments may be afoot, I’ll only give you this clue: count the number of Trees on the birthday cake. While you’re debating whether that result actually means something, take a look at these reactions from other fans who are kinda peeved this wasn’t some sort of official announcement:
- “Gave me false hope for a pt3” - @RineyVell
- “I read this COMPLETELY wrong and thought we were getting a third movie…” - @itsTiaMonette
- “Fuck it isn’t an announcement for the third one.” - @NotChrisG1
- “I thought this was an announcement for part 3.” - @BOUGIEBlTCH
- “Well, SHIT…I thought this is an announcement for the third #HappyDeathday called “Happy Deathday Tree.” - @richardetcetera
A third Happy Death Day project hasn’t been too far from the minds of those that have worked on the series so far. Even co-writer Michael Kennedy has gotten in on the game, thanks to previously revealing his pitch for Freaky Death Day, which would crossover Happy Death Day and the 2020 film Freaky (both were directed by Christopher Landon). It also helps that, per an interview with the franchise’s star Jessica Rothe from earlier in 2024, Happy Death Day 3 already has a story worked out.
Whether it’s the Freaky Death Day draft in the works, or the Happy Death Day To Us pitch discussed a couple of years ago, remains to be seen. No matter which concept wins, if that last update is to be believed, Tree’s next adventure rests in the hands of Universal Pictures and Blumhouse. But if a new movie isn't to be, then perhaps it's time the powers that be consider a streaming series, or at least a Halloween Horror Nights house, to help ease the pain of all of us loyal fans.
It could be a while before we get any answers of that sort, which only leaves myself and other fans of how Happy Death Day’s time loop works a bit out in the cold. Thankfully, that just means that we should all turn out attention to our respective Peacock subscriptions, as both the Tree Gelbman duology and Freaky are available to stream.
