Ethan Hawke and director Scott Derrickson are working on something new together. Hawke confirmed the collaboration during an interview with Polygon promoting his film The Weight, though he kept details sparse.
"I don't have agendas like that about what kind of movie, really. I like people. Yeah, Scott and I are working on something right now. I think he's so gifted. I like working with him," Hawke said.
The two have a well-established working relationship. According to Screen Rant, they first teamed up on Sinister in 2012, in which Hawke plays a true-crime author who uncovers something disturbing while researching a book. They reunited for The Black Phone in 2021, with Hawke taking on the role of a serial child abductor known as the Grabber. Derrickson then returned to direct Black Phone 2, released in 2025, which brought back Hawke's character while expanding the franchise's supernatural elements.
Black Phone 2 performed well. It grossed $132 million against a $30 million budget and drew positive reviews from critics.
Whether the new project is a third Black Phone film or something entirely different is unclear. Hawke gave no indication either way. When Black Phone 2 premiered, Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill were guarded about the franchise's future.
Cargill spelled out his approach at the time: "I can't think about filmmaking that way. I understand that's the business of the studios, trying to create film franchises. And I certainly respect film franchises as a horror fan. But as a filmmaker, I have to go one film at a time, and any film that I work on, I have to feel like this might be the last one I get to do. So it had to be complete. We haven't had one conversation about a Black Phone 3, and I don't know that we will."
He added: "Would we love to work with [Black Phone stars Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Ethan Hawke] again? Absolutely. Would we love to get the band back together? Absolutely. Would I love to explore those characters some more? I thought about it. But it all comes down to: Is there a good enough idea to justify us putting a year of our life into making that? When you commit to a movie, that becomes part of your life for at least a year. So it's really got to be something really great."
The most straightforward explanation for the new Hawke-Derrickson collaboration would be Black Phone 3, particularly given the sequel's strong performance and the story threads it left open. The 2025 film established that Hawke's Grabber character had a reach extending well beyond his original 1978 Denver storyline. Still, neither Hawke nor Derrickson has confirmed that is the direction they are heading.
