Actor Dan Stevens has had a busy year, especially in the genre field, appearing in “Abigail,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” and soon, on August 29, Neon’s horror thriller “Cuckoo,” starring Hunter Schafer. “Cuckoo” had its world premiere earlier this year at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and was met with great acclaim. Stevens recently joined our The Discourse podcast to discuss all things “Cuckoo” and more.
READ MORE: Dan Stevens Says There’s Been Talks About A Sequel To ‘The Guest‘
We’ll have more from this interview soon, including the full podcast conversation, but we also had time to talk to Stevens about a few questions, specifically about rumors that he was cast in Marvel’s “Eternals” (he never appeared in the film, leading some to speculate his character was nixed or cut from the film), and a potential sequel to the Adam Wingard thriller “The Guest.”
As for Marvel’s “Eternals,” there’s no conspiracy; it was all evidently a mix-up and a game that went too far.
“What happened was, I was in London shooting ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ when my good friends Brian Tyree Henry and Kamal Nanjani were in London shooting ‘Eternals,’ and we went for a curry,” he explained. “And as sometimes happens when you’re hanging out with actor friends, everyone’s like, ‘let’s take a selfie,’ and someone posted it, and in the way that only the internet can, it just was like, ‘He must be playing [Kro].’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
“And so, we just had fun teasing fans for a while,” he admitted. “But it did get kind of out of hand where, like, I would sit in junkets like this with something completely unconnected, and people would say, ‘So, you know, what’s it like working with Chloe Zhao?’ And I’d be like, ‘Oh, listen, let me stop you right there. This has gotten way out of hand.’ But, yeah, all that happened is we went for a friendly dinner in London.”
As for “The Guest 2” there’s been rumors of a sequel since 2020, at least, but so far, they haven’t materialized. The film turns ten years old this year, and Stevens said he and Wingard have loved teasing it (once as an April Fool’s joke), including making a musical playlist for the film, but no studio has greenlit it yet.
“I think we’re gonna continue enjoying the April Fool’s situation until somebody green lights a sequel or something more to do with that movie,” he said. “We’re just having fun with that. It really made me laugh that Adam commissioned this entire soundtrack that was based on an outline, by the way. I mean, he wrote a really good outline for a sequel story. He and Simon really fleshed it out and sent it to all these incredible synth musicians, some of whom had played on the previous soundtrack, some of whom were Adam’s friends or people that he just admired, and they’ve made a really awesome soundtrack, and it’s a great listen.”
“And you look at the cover of the album, and you listen to the soundtrack, and you can [see it]. I think that movie will always be better in people’s imaginations than it could ever be where we can actually make it,” he continued. “So maybe that’s the best way to leave it. It’s just—you’ve got the soundtrack. Just picture it in your mind. It’s pretty awesome, you know? Much of it is a throwback to the way that old, old movies would tee up that sort of sequel cliffhanger thing, whether there will be a sequel or not. It’s just kind of a fun element to sort of drop in there.”
File that one under a maybe but like the upcoming “They Follow,” the sequel to “It Follows,” which also turns ten this year, indie cult hits from a decade ago are building steam and cache with audiences enough to garner legitimate sequels. Time will tell on this one, I guess. – Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo.