Universal picks release dates for Blumhouse films Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, The Black Phone 2, M3GAN 2.0 & more

Universal Pictures has just announced (via Deadline) release dates – in some cases, new release dates for movies that are shifting around on their schedule – for five upcoming horror films… and every one of them happens to be a Blumhouse production. The movies in question are The Woman in the Yard, Drop, The Black Phone 2, M3GAN 2.0, and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – and we’re about to go through them one-by-one.

First up is the thriller The Woman in the Yard, which was once set to reach theatres on January 10, 2025, but was bumped out of that date so the Blumhouse reboot of Wolf Man could move from this October to January 17th. Jaume Collet-Serra is directing the film, which stars Danielle Deadwyler of The Devil to Pay and Till, Okwui Okpokwasili of The Exorcist: Believer and I Am Legend, and Russell Hornsby of The Hate U Give and Fences. The screenplay was written by Sam Stefanak, who was previously a staff writer and story editor on the Netflix animated series F Is for Family, but details on the story are being kept under wraps. The Woman in the Yard is now set to reach theatres on March 28, 2025.

Next is the “fast-paced thriller” Drop, which Blumhouse is producing with Platinum Dunes. Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon is at the helm of this one, working from a screenplay by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, a writing duo that has previously worked with Blumhouse on the horror projects Truth or Dare and Fantasy Island. Again, plot details are being kept secret for now. The film stars Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus season 2), Violett Beane (The Flash), Brandon Sklenar (1923), Jeffery Self (The Horror of Dolores Roach), Gabrielle Ryan (Power Book IV: Force), and newcomer Jacob Robinson, who has a large following on his parent-run Tik Tok account. Universal will be giving Drop a theatrical release on April 11, 2025.

Previously scheduled to be released on June 27, 2025, director Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone 2 is moving to October 17, 2025, so M3GAN 2.0 has moved back from May 16 to the June 27, 2025 date The Black Phone 2 vacated. The M3GAN sequel seems to be coming together more slowly than expected, as it was once meant to reach theatres in January of 2025.

Based on a short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone centered on Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney. If you’d like to read the short story that The Black Phone is based on, it can be found in Hill’s collection 20th Century Ghosts, which you can buy HERE. The first film covered Hill’s entire story, so we have no idea where Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill will be taking us in the sequel. We do know that The Black Phone 2 is set to star returning cast members Mason Thames as Finney Shaw, Madeleine McGraw as Finney’s sister Gwen, Jeremy Davies as their dad Terrence, and Miguel Mora, whose only previous credit is The Black Phone, as Robin, a friend of Finney’s who was killed in the first movie. Plus, yes, Ethan Hawke will be reprising the role of the child-killer known as The Grabber.

Directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (Malignant), based on a story crafted by producer James Wan, M3GAN had the following synopsis: She’s more than just a toy. She’s part of the family. From the most prolific minds in horror — James Wan, the filmmaker behind the Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring franchises, and Blumhouse, the producer of the Halloween films, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man — comes a fresh new face in terror. M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma, M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady, Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems — a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.

Johnstone is returning to the helm for the sequel, and Cooper has written the script. M3GAN stars Allison Williams and Violet McGraw will be reprising their roles in M3GAN 2.0, and Ivanna Sakhno of the Star Wars show Ahsoka recently landed a major part in the film.

The video game adaptation sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 now has a December 5, 2025 release date. Five Nights at Freddy‘s director Emma Tammi is back at the helm for the sequel, and star Josh Hutcherson is expected to return. The video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.

What do you think of the release dates Universal has chosen for these Blumhouse productions? Let us know by leaving a comment below.