The 2018 Sundance darling and summer indie hit Searching will be getting a sequel. The original film, starring John Cho and Debra Messing, centered on a father who was desperate to find her missing daughter. As the police investigation leads nowhere, the father turns to the only place that may lead to his daughter’s whereabouts, her laptop.

This is great news for a film that deserved a lot more attention than it got. And the best thing about it is that writer/director Aneesh Chaganty, co-writer/producer Sev Ohanian, and producer Natalie Qasabian will all be back in their creative capacities to bring a sequel to audiences. More on the report below.

While Deadline was able to break the news, /Film obtained some additional reporting when Chaganty responded directly to their initial report:

It’s true. But note: the story will not follow the same characters or plot line as the first. Most importantly, we see this as an opportunity to tell another original, tech-driven thriller. If we can do that AND help bring new faces/voices to the industry, bonus points :) https://t.co/eg9AnfpD9V

— Aneesh Chaganty (@aneeshchaganty) August 14, 2019

This is all great news, a little bit disappointing considering that Cho won’t be back as a leading man. But, as Chaganty stated, the sequel will be entirely new and not follow any of the characters from the first. Furthermore, in order to stop things from feeling repetitive, there will be “opportunity to tell another original, tech-driven thriller.” And they hope they can “help bring new faces/voices to the industry.”

For those who are not familiar with Chaganty’s Searching, the film followed David (Cho) who is searching for his missing high school daughter on a computer screen — whether that is through Facetime, texts, video surveillance, search bars, or archive videos. Though the premise of a father searching for his daughter was simple, the way the film was presented to audiences made the mystery thriller modern and contemporary.

Though details on the sequel haven’t been made public, there are those who speculate that the film could possibly be about aliens. That idea isn’t as far-fetched as you may think, as the first film dropped an Easter egg in a news broadcast chyron that said something about NASA employees being killed and electromagnetic anomalies.

If they were to do another “original, tech-driven thriller” maybe we could see these NASA employees try to survive their experience with the help of security cameras and other video surveillance. But that is pure speculation on my part. We will just have to wait and see.

[Source: Deadline | /Film]