Fear Street Part 4 Updates: Story, Release Date & Cast
Shadyside's curse may have been broken in Fear Street Part 3: 1666, but the blood-soaked town could return in Fear Street Part 4. While Netflix has yet to announce a follow-up to the Fear Street movie trilogy, the project was originally pitched as the start of a greater anthology franchise, and there are plenty of R.L. Stine books to draw from.
Directed by Leigh Janiak, Fear Street's story is told over three movies that take place in 1994, 1978 and 1666, respectively, and pays homage to horror classics like Scream and Friday the 13th. Set in the small town of Shadyside, the trilogy follows a group of teens as they try to survive a witch's curse that periodically causes a Shadysider to become possessed and go on a brutal killing spree. Their investigation takes them all the way back to the source of the curse in 1666, when a local witch called Sarah Fier was hanged and has supposedly kept her grip on the town ever since.
After some shocking reveals, an upsetting encounter with a bread-slicer, and a grand finale in which Shadyside's survivors lay a trap for the undead killers in the local mall, the Fear Street trilogy ends on a post-credits tease for future instalments. Here's what we know about Fear Street Part 4's possible story, cast and release date.
Netflix hasn't announced any official plans for Fear Street Part 4. However, the first three movies were made with some kind of continuation in mind, and Fear Street Part 3: 1666's post-credits scene teases more nightmares to come in the future. Speaking to Den Of Geek, Leigh Janiak said that the movie trilogy was set up to potentially be the beginning of a larger Fear Street universe:
“I remember one of the first conversations that I had with my producers, when I was pitching what I thought was the potential of this series, I was like, ‘You have here the potential to have like a Marvel universe that is horror.’ We can tell the story of these other slasher killers in these other eras. We can build out the universe of Shadyside because evil doesn’t go away. So what does that mean? So I think that there’s a lot of opportunity here to continue just growing Fear Street."
Fear Street could return in the film of a standalone movie, another trilogy, or even a TV show. Sci-fi horror series Stranger Things has been one of Netflix's biggest success stories, and Fear Street shares Stranger Things' blend of nostalgic pop culture homages and its theme of a plucky group of kids standing up against an unspeakable evil (as well as cast member Sadie Sink). Following the cancellation of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, there's a spot open in Netflix's line-up for a new supernatural horror show.
Fear Street's story is based around the idea that Shadyside has been plagued by different serial killers in every generation, and many of these serial killers only play a minor role in the trilogy, leaving the potential open for movies based around Ruby Lane, Billy Barker, or the Humpty Dumpty killer. Fear Street 4 could also be a direct sequel to the first trilogy, since Fear Street Part 3: 1666's post-credits scene shows someone snatching the witch's book from its former altar, teasing that a new nightmare could arrive. A sequel could even be set in the present day, and feature adult versions of Deena, Josh and Sam.
There's no official word yet of Fear Street cast members returning for sequels or spinoffs. However, the Fear Street trilogy set up an interesting way for actors to return - even if their characters were killed off. When Deena is transported into the past in Fear Street Part 3: 1666, actress Kiana Madeira takes on the role of Sarah Fier and Benjamin Flores Jr. (who plays Josh in the 1994 storyline) plays Sarah's brother, Henry. Other cast members - including Ashley Zukerman, Sadie Sink, Olivia Scott Welch, Fred Hechinger and Julia Rehwald - also return to play the ancestors of their characters from the other films.
In the Fear Street press notes, Janiak explained, "I've been obsessed with shows like Quantum Leap that use the same actors, but put them in different time periods... I’m also just personally interested in the idea of the past repeating itself, of ideas of reincarnation and being attached to your ancestors." This trend could continue in future instalments, with the original Fear Street cast returning to play Shadysiders from other points in history.
The Fear Street trilogy was originally supposed to get a theatrical release, with Fear Street Part 1:1994 arriving in theaters in June 2020. It was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and moved to Netflix after distributor Chernin Entertainment signed a first-look deal with the streaming service. Assuming the partnership between Chernin and Netflix continues, future instalments of Fear Street can also be expected to release on Netflix. If another movie installment is announced soon, it could potentially begin filming later this year for a late 2022 or early 2023 release.