“We’re working on it,” John Carpenter talks The Thing sequel

November 9th, 2025 by Marc Comments

John Carpenter has been talking up a sequel to one of his most beloved horror movies, The Thing.

Speaking at Fan Expo Philadelphia, Carpenter, who hasn’t directed a movie since 2010 disappointing The Ward, the legendary writer/director/composter was asked if he would ever make a sequel to the cult classic sci-fi/horror and he admitted that it’s in development. But don’t uncork that champagne just yet!

“We’re working on it now,” Carpenter told the fan before adding, “I don’t know. We’ll see.”


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The 1982 epic stars Kurt Russell as McCready, a helicopter pilot stuck with a team of men in an Antarctica research base that comes under attack by a shape-shifting alien entity, and it’s an exercise in tension, performances, terror and storytelling unlike most movies and while it has had a prequel in the form of 2011’s The Thing (yes, same title – apparently thay couldn’t come up with a better one) starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jeol Edgerton and, say it quielty, it’s actually not a bad movie albeit nowhere near as good as Carpenter’s masterpiece.

Carpenter is no stranger to developing sequels to his movies starring Kurt Russell, having helped with the storyline of the 2015 Big Trouble in Little China comics, so it make you wonder if, should this ever happen – and hopefully it will – will we see Russell’s McCready return?

Thoughts on John Carpenter developing a sequel to The Thing? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em.

Watch Carpenter at the event:


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Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….