There Will Be a Sequel to John Cho’s Film “Searching” – Top

Searching’s director Aneesh Chaganty has confirmed the sequel on Twitter, which is certainly good news for all us movie folk. Searching was an unexpected find at the movies last year, driven by John Cho’s stellar performance and an opening 10 minutes that is on par with the sob fest that was Pixar’s Up. It was both a critical and commercial success, making 75 million USD worldwide and receiving a hefty 92% score on rotten tomatoes.

It’s true. But note: the story will not follow the same characters or plot line as the first. Most importantly, we see this as an opportunity to tell another original, tech-driven thriller. If we can do that AND help bring new faces/voices to the industry, bonus points 🙂

— Aneesh Chaganty (@aneeshchaganty) August 14, 2019

In his tweet, Chaganty confirmed that the sequel will be following new characters and new plot lines. While this is sad since we won’t be getting more John Cho in this franchise, this decision is definitely a commendable one since it involves original storytelling and not just rehashed material. Searching took on the storytelling technique we saw in Unfriended, where the film is told entirely through smartphones and computer screens. So much of our lives exist online now, and Chaganty and the team managed to keep the film fairly visually dynamic.

In an interview with Screenrant, Chaganty mentioned how he and his team were originally reluctant to do a film that uses technology to tell a story, since it has been done before. Fortunately, once they cracked the story, he saw “that the best way to do this was by taking an unconventional filmmaking approach and marrying it with a very conventional classic structure.” This choice certainly panned out in their favour, and hopefully, the sequel will take us in an equally engaging direction.