Naomi Ackie cast alongside Maika Monroe in They Follow

Naomi Ackie has been cast in the upcoming sequel to David Robert Michell’s 2014 supernatural horror, It Follows, alongside original star Maika Monroe. The sequel will be titled They Follow and will be distributed by Neon.

It Follows saw Monroe star as teenager Jay who is cursed by a terrifying and relentless entity after having a sexual encounter with a previous curse victim, aiming to pass the curse onto Jay through intercourse to save himself. The entity takes the form of random individual people and stalks Jay from afar in unnerving encounters, leaving her so traumatised and paralysed by fear that she struggles with her morality once she discovers she too can pass on the curse by having intercourse with a new unsuspecting victim.

The film additionally starred Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe and made $23 million at the box office from a $1 million budget. Written and directed by Mitchell as his second feature film, It Follows ranks among one of the 2010’s best horrors due to its creative concept, disturbing imagery of the entity and tactful responses from its final girl.

The sequel’s development was initially revealed in 2023, with Neon’s Tom Quinn teasing the follow-up since the original film’s release.

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Mitchell’s additional filmmaking credits include his 2010 coming-of-age debut The Myth of the American Sleepover and 2018’s Surrealist thriller Under the Silver Lake. 2026 will also see the release of the director’s junior feature, The End of Oak Street, an upcoming survival thriller starring Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, and Christian Convery. The film focuses on a family noticing bizarre occurrences in their seemingly ordinary neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, Ackie’s onscreen debut came in 2016 with William Oldroyd’s period drama, Lady Macbeth, an adaptation of the 1865 Nikoli Leskov novella, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

She has recently appeared in Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters.

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Ros Tibbs

Editor

Ros is a film and lit graduate writing news and reviews at The People's Magazine. She also writes long-form film theory, film history, analytical or curated recommendations pieces on other platforms.

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