"Not set on the same day": Happy Death Day 3 helmer Christopher Landon reveals bits of how the third film will be different

The theme of Christopher Landon's black comedy series is already clear to us, and Happy Death Day 3 will play the death loop again. An individual wakes up, just to die, and wakes up again until they have unmasked a killer. Something that's akin to this video game called Until Dawn, which is also getting a film adaptation soon.

However, we don't know when Happy Death Day 3 is coming, but we got an update thanks to this one interview Landon gave to Screen Rant at SXSW. He said while he explained his pitch for the third film,

"I did [pitch a third movie]. I've had the idea for a long time. Jessica Rothe and I have talked about it a lot. The beauty is that it's not set on the same day, and it's not in the same loop. So, if the opportunity should ever arise, and if Universal ever decides that they actually want a third because the fans do."

In 2020, while talking to Empire Magazine, Landon gave us a hint that the working title of the film at the time was Happy Death Day To Us rather than Happy Death Day 3.

Landon has confirmed this about Happy Death Day 3 before

This isn't the first time Landon has spoken about Happy Death Day 3. In 2024, while having a chat with ComicBook at New York Comic Con, he confirmed that this movie isn't set on the same day. To add to it, he also said this is going to be bigger than the first two.

Happy Death Day's story begins with Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe), who is stuck in a time loop. She dies many deaths, much like what happened with Doctor Strange when he trapped Dormammu in a time loop. However, there are no cosmic entities involved.

The film was a massive success given it garnered $125 million against the $5 million budget. That was already a sign for a sequel, which we got a couple of years later, dubbed Happy Death Day 2U.

Rothe reprised her role from the previous film, but this time it's this individual dubbed Ryan Phan (Phi Vu), whom she helps, as she already had this experience before. Carter (Israel Broussard), who was also in the first movie, tags along with Rothe in this one too.

Nevertheless, though the film certainly tried to up the science game, it failed to live up to the first film, though it was a financial success, garnering $65 million against the $9 million budget.

Why Happy Death Day 3 needs to outperform the first two?

We have seen how the first film exploded at the box office, but then the second film's decline in revenue is something of a concern. Happy Death Day 3 may or may not come out, but if the former's the case, it needs to outlive the first two films.

Now what are the chances of that happening? People sure have enjoyed the couple of films, and given that the (potential) third film in the series will be bigger than the two, it may perform better than the first.

That said, it is likely to be a bigger budget movie too, so merely $60 million to $70 million certainly won't be an expectation here.