Murder goes on a world tour in Smile 2.
Smile 2 has officially been rated R by the Motion Picture Association. The film — which released a poster and trailer already this week — earned the 17-and-up rating for “strong bloody violent content, grisly images, language throughout and drug use.” In Paramount’s Smile 2, pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) can’t stop seeing sinister, haunting smiles after witnessing a friend’s suicide. The creepy smiles and other hallucinations start to follow her not just on a world tour, but into her most private moments, and in the trailer, she goes so far as to consider stopping her heart medically in an attempt to “die” and fool the phenomenon that seems determined to kill her. It’s a creative solution for a novel problem, you have to give her that much. Still, probably not the advice most doctors would give you.
That said, the advice comes from Ahsoka star Peter Jacobson, the great character actor best known for playing a doctor — Dr. Chris Taub — for several years on the acclaimed procedural House M.D.
Director Parker Finn previously told ComicBook that he never expected Smile to become a franchise and was surprised when the first film became a hit, leading to the possibility of a sequel.
“I made Smile to, of course, be self-contained, tell its whole own story,” Finn said in 2022. “I didn’t think in a million years that there would be such a demand for a sequel. But having said that, I think there are definitely things inside of the film that remain purposefully unexplored that would be very exciting to dive into, and also things that I didn’t get a chance to do on the first one for either budget constraints or if it didn’t quite fit in the story that I think would be really exciting.”
That sequel is coming next month, just in time for Halloween, and the latest trailer comes on the heels of yesterday’s poster drop.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.
Written and directed by Parker Finn, Smile 2 stars Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raúl Castillo and Kyle Gallner.
Smile 2 is prioduced by Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Isaac Klausner, Parker Finn, and Robert Salerno.
Smile 2 comes to theaters on October 18th.
