‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ director predicts the future of the franchise

The “A Quiet Place” franchise likely isn’t finished just yet — if “A Quiet Place: Day One” director Michael Sarnoski has any say in the matter.

The prequel, which serves as the third installment in John Krasinki’s successful franchise, explores the early stages of the alien invasion depicted in the previous films.

Sarnoski expressed confidence about the future, telling The Post, “I’m sure there will be more ‘Quiet Place’ movies. I just would be shocked if there if there weren’t.”

“I’m not officially saying that. I don’t know of any specific official ones,” he went on. “But I’m sure there will be more ‘Quiet Place’ movies because people really love them.”

In “A Quiet Place: Day One,” Lupita Nyong’o stars as Sam, an ill woman trapped in New York City during the invasion, while Joseph Quinn plays Eric, a young law student. The film delves into the characters’ emotional journey and the growth of their companionship amidst the chaos.

Sarnoski highlighted the importance of character development in the film’s overall message.

“If you can find a character story that we haven’t seen within this universe, then it can keep going on and the monsters and everything and just kind of a backdrop for that,” Sarnoski said on what he hopes audiences take away from the newest installment. “I hope that as they keep moving forward, they put as much emphasis on [the characters] as they have.”

He also praised Nyong’o, 41, and Quinn, 30, for their “intelligent” work.

“When they’re in a scene together, their main focus is the other person and I think that really helped and was really fun to watch and just made it work for those characters,” he explained. “Because you need to be watching people trying to figure each other out without words.”

But balancing emotional depth with horror elements was a challenge for Sarnoski, more so than creating a movie with a lack of dialogue.

“The trickiest stuff is figuring out the balance between the kind of emotional stuff and the exciting, horror driven stuff, like finding that balance so that you always felt like you were kind of with the characters in these different highs and lows, and that the pace felt right.”

Recreating New York City to make the setting look authentic was a significant hurdle too.

“Conjuring New York City was a was a big thing because we had to shoot this in London and doing something that felt like you believed you were in this, like, boots on the ground,” he added.

Initially hesitant about joining a large franchise after his indie film “Pig” (2021), Sarnoski was ultimately convinced by Krasinski’s approach. The “Office” alum’s willingness to let Sarnoski bring his own vision of the project also sealed the deal.

“I was cautious to make that leap into a big studio thing because it’s a little bit of a cliche for your second film,” he told The Post. “You get swept up into a studio and that can come with a lot of difficulties.”

“So I was like, if I’m going to do something like that, I want a really good reason to do that.”

“John came to me and said, ‘Hey, can you bring your specific ‘Pig’ touch to this franchise?’” he recalled.

“The only kind of guardrails they gave me were New York City day one,” he added. “But beyond that, come up with the tone you want, the characters you want. It doesn’t have to match the old movies. It felt like I was being offered a really unique opportunity to kind of do a big franchise studio film in a way that I wouldn’t usually get to do it.”

“It had a lot more freedom baked into it, and there was a lot of encouragement to explore. It just sort of felt like, oh, if I’m going to do a big studio movie, this is the kind that I want to be able to do.”

Released on June 28, “A Quiet Place: Day One” received positive reviews and set a franchise record, raking in $53 million domestically its opening weekend.

The film is currently available for digital rental or purchase on platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies and YouTube. It will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and 4K Steelbook on October 8.