Eli Roth would be up for turning Thanksgiving into a franchise

Nov. 1, 2023



Exclusive: Eli Roth says he “could spend the rest of my life” making Thanksgiving sequels

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Thanksgiving director Eli Roth is keen to turn his upcoming holiday horror into a franchise.

The upcoming slasher film may not even be in theaters yet, but that hasn’t stopped Roth from hoping it will continue. He shared his thoughts about sequels withSFX magazinein the new issue, which features David Tennant as Doctor Who on the cover.

“Every shot, we’re like, ‘Oh, the Thanksgivingverse’ – we joke about it,” he says excitedly about the prospect. “Look, if you give people a rich mythology, and a great killer, and a great backstory, and a good mask, the story can go in any number of directions. Part of what we spent so long on was coming up with the backstory, the mythology, the reason and the potential suspects for who could be doing this. I have a million different ways I could take the story. I love it. I could spend the rest of my life making Thanksgiving movies.”

Based on a fake trailer he made for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse back in 2007, Thanksgiving is set around, you guessed it, the US holiday of Thanksgiving. It begins after a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy and a mysterious killer makes his way to the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Known only as ‘John Carver’, his plans to create a carving board out of the town’s inhabitants soon become terrifyingly clear.

Roth’s latest stars Patrick Dempsey as the town sheriff, Addison Rae as Gabby, and Milo Manheim as Ryan. Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, Gina Gershon, and Tim Dillon round up the supporting cast.

Thanksgiving is released on November 17.

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The above is just a snippet from our interview with Roth, which you can read more from inthe latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Doctor Who on the cover and is available on newsstands from Wednesday, November 1.

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I’m the Editor of SFX, the world’s number one sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – available digitally and in print every four weeks since 1995. I’ve been editing magazines, and writing for numerous publications since before the Time War. Obviously SFX is the best one. I knew being a geek would work out fine.

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