‘Smile’ Is Officially Getting a Horrifying New Sequel After 2-Year Delay

The 2020s are far from over, yet it’s already been a fantastic decade for horror with exciting new creatives and franchises cropping up left and right. From Danny and Michael Philippou and their excellent feature debut Talk to Me and follow-up Bring Her Back, to Ti West and his X trilogy, Zach Cregger with Barbarian and Weapons, and the recent wave of YouTube creators turned horror maestros, including Mark Fischbach, Chris Stuckman, Kane Parsons, and Curry Barker, new terrifying ideas have been spawning from all corners of the industry and reaching wild new levels of success. Among the biggest breakouts of the early 2020s, however, was undoubtedly Parker Finn with his franchise Smile. The first feature, released in 2022 based on a short film, and its 2024 follow-up were massive hits, earning a combined box office haul of over $350 million and rave reviews from critics and audiences.

Both films used two vastly different characters — Sosie Bacon‘s therapist Rose Cotter and Naomi Scott‘s pop star Skye Riley — to explore the same terrifying premise. In Smile, those cursed by a malevolent entity see constant hallucinations of people unnaturally smiling at them and are haunted by increasingly disturbing visions until, inevitably, they take their own life in front of someone with the same awful grin. The curse is passed to any witnesses, creating a seemingly unending chain that stems back to some unknown origin. It’s a flexible premise that Finn has said he’s open to exploring further if there’s a thoughtful, thematic idea to do so, like with the character-driven first two films. Until a third installment is announced, though, IDW Publishing is giving the burgeoning franchise a new chapter on the page.

The comic giant’s horror imprint, IDW Dark, is expanding its collection of works based on Paramount’s biggest properties. Among them is a new comic titled Any Given Smile, which will take the series’ haunting premise to the gridiron in 1995 against the backdrop of the American Arena League football championship. Entertainment Weekly just shared an exclusive look at the story with five new covers that tie into its themes, from a bloody football that appears to be smiling by Jock, to a grinning quarterback illustrated by Ashley Witter, a torn trading card by Pablo M. Collar, and a haunted gambling underworld brought to life by Martin Simmonds and Joëlle Jones. The GLAAD Media Award-winning Collar also crafted the interior art for the new five-issue series, which was penned by Eisner Award-nominee Stephanie Williams and features colors and letters by Triona Farrell and Ariana Maher, respectively.

What Will ‘Any Given Smile’ Be About?

Any Given Smile will depict the run-up to the big AAL championship, a moment that should be a historic occasion for the Sharks in their 20 years of operation. All their hopes ride on a backup quarterback who has emerged as a star when the lights have shone brightest, but he’s feeling the pressure from his teammates, fans, and the gambling underworld to whom he owes a great debt. Before the game, the community is rocked by a string of mysterious suicides, which sends one suspicious sports journalist digging for any correlation to the game and, particularly, the cloud of sports gambling that looms over it. In reality, the Smile Entity is at work, violently sowing distrust among the community at a time when tensions are high, and the payouts are massive.

Williams told EW that the idea to explore the Smile universe through football was tied to both her love of sports, the nature of the people who play the game, and the increasing presence of sports betting giants like FanDuel and DraftKings in advertising and partnerships with the major sports leagues. It was a rare chance to combine her own interests with a bloody idea that feels right at home with how Finn explored trauma and stardom through his cursed horror.

“Because that universe is often about people who are a little bit broken or just have things going on, football players almost always have some type of drama, some type of backstory that is sometimes a little unsavory. And then also…sports gambling. Very big. Didn’t know that would happen after our pitch, but it just all aligned. So this was the perfect chance for me to get my other fandoms and obsessions into a work.”

Any Given Smile is available to pre-order now from your local comic store. Check out the variant covers courtesy of EW in the gallery above.