We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Fear Street director wants to make the “horror MCU”

Leigh Janiak says Netflix offers a lot of freedom in that regard

The Fear Street trilogy may have finished on Netflix, but director Leigh Janiak has plenty of ideas to more. Speaking about where the horror movies could go next, she has her eyes firmly set on the Marvel Cinematic Universe framework.

“One of the exciting things about Fear Street is the fact that the universe is big and allows for a lot of space,” Janiak told Indiewire. “One of the things that I talked about before I was hired was that we have a potential here to create a horror Marvel [Cinematic Universe], where you can have slasher killers from lots of different eras. You have the canon of our main mythology that’s built around the fact that the devil lives in Shadyside, so there’s also room for everything else.”

This is a fascinating idea, and one the fantasy movies easily lend themselves too. Across the three films, we get one complete story, told through flashbacks and magic, framed by a set of teenagers trying to find a way to stop the Shadyside curse. The spin-off potential is high, since over half a dozen killers appear throughout.

YouTube Thumbnail

As Janiak goes on to explain, being on a streaming service makes new installments even more interesting because they don’t need to strictly be modelled around movies or TV. Fear Street uses recaps like any TV series, but it’s very firmly cinematic in scope and aspirations.

“I don’t even think about it like TV or movies exactly anymore,” she says. “That’s the great thing about Netflix and about what Fear Street is, which is kind of a hybrid new thing. I’m excited about the possibility of what else can happen.”

This already sort of exists with The Conjuring-verse, which follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren through various haunted houses and the like. Those thriller movies tend to be quite loosely-connected, though, whereas this has a tighter timeline.

We enjoyed Fear Street, thinking Fear Street 1994 a strong start, before a dip for Fear Street 1978, and then a lovely crescendo for Fear Street 1666. A small mid-credits tease leaves the door open for something sooner rather than later.

What this all amounts to remains in the air – watch this space. Here’s the best horror movies on Netflix for more screams to stream.