The Bad Seed sequel: Mckenna Grace returns, co-wrote the script

It had slipped my mind that Rob Lowe directed a 2018 Lifetime adaptation of The Bad Seed that starred Mckenna Grace (soon to be seen in Ghostbusters: Afterlife) as the title character, but Lifetime has just reminded me by announcing that a sequel is in the works. Grace will be returning in the lead – and this time she even co-wrote the script! Grace collaborated on the script with her father Ross Burge and Barbara Marshall, who wrote the ’18 film.

Louise Archambault (Catastrophe) is directing the Bad Seed sequel, which is currently filming in Vancouver. Grace is playing

15-year-old Emma, a seemingly typical teenaged girl who is anything but that. Set several years after the murderous events of the first movie which left her father dead, Emma is now living with her aunt Angela and navigating high school. Angela’s husband begins to suspect that Emma may not be as innocent as she appears and suggests sending her off to boarding school. Meanwhile, a new girl at school seems to know Emma’s secrets, leaving Emma no choice but to slip back to her old ways and take care of her enemies by any means necessary.

Grace is also executive producing the film with Ross Burge, her mother Crystal Burge, and the first movie’s executive producer Mark Wolper. Grace and Ross Burge, an orthopedic surgeon, wrote the initial draft of the script while stuck at home during the pandemic lockdown.

Lifetime’s Tanya Lopez told Deadline,

When Mckenna came to us with a spec script she wrote, we were blown away with her vision for the next installment and thrilled we could greenlight it and re-team with her and Mark Wolper. This is an incredible Broader Focus moment to have such in a talented young star stretch her abilities beyond acting into writing and executive producing.”

The Bad Seed sequel is being produced for Lifetime by The Wolper Organization and Front Street Productions, and is the first production for Grace’s company Beautiful Ghosts Productions.

The 2018 version of The Bad Seed was a reimagining of the 1956 psychological horror film The Bad Seed (watch it HERE), which itself was based on a novel by William March and its stage adaptation by Maxwell Anderson. There was also a 1985 movie based on the story.

It’s cool to hear that Grace enjoyed being the Bad Seed so much that she went ahead and wrote a sequel herself. This sequel is expected to premiere sometime in 2022.