While no strict details have been shared about the characters, Deadline’s report mentions that Welliver is said to be playing Duval, a special DOJ prosecutor; Rhodes is believed to be playing Dom, Peter Sutherland’s (Basso) new partner; while Li is thought to be playing Dom’s wife Min. And, in a reveal fans have long been waiting for, Lail will play Peter’s ex-fiancée Zoe.
Exact details for the new season have yet to be confirmed, though we do know that dedicating himself to his new career as a Night Agent, Peter swore off romantic relationships after his job had put Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan), his love interest for the first two seasons, in danger.
He may now be thrown back into that arena with his ex-fiancée Zoe re-entering his life. The only fleeting reference of her so far had been when Peter gave some of her clothes to Rose in Season 1.
When will the new season of ‘The Night Agent’ be on screens?
Season 3 of the show premiered in February, and with the next run still to shoot –– with the show itself relocating to Los Angeles –– we can likely expect fresh episodes to arrive early next year.
Madelaine Petsch stars in ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Madelaine Petsch about her work on ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’, shooting all three films at once, what her character is going through in the new movie, if she is happy with the ending, working with legendary director Renny Harlin, and what she’ll remember most about the experience.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Madelaine Petsch as “Maya,” in the horror film ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’, a Lionsgate release. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the challenges of shooting three movies at the same time and now that the final installment is being released, how do you feel about fans finally seeing the conclusion of the trilogy?
Madelaine Petsch: How much time do you have to talk about challenges of shooting three movies at once? It’s quite a thing. I mean, time was a challenge, keeping track of where my character is, not only just emotionally, but physically with my wounds, my limp and how that evolves over time, knowing we want to end without that limp and how do we get there. So, it was so much technicality and then also trying to remove the technicality from the artistry when I’m in front of the camera. It was so much in prep, everything happened in prep. Now that it’s out, I think the other challenge was editing. I mean, we edited ‘Chapter 1’, we edited ‘Chapter 2’, and then by the time we edited the second one, we’re like, “Oh, ‘Chapter 3’ can evolve as this character has evolved naturally through editing in a completely different way.” So, we went and enhanced it with a 15-day reshoot for ‘Chapter 3’. We almost created an entirely new film, which was crazy to see and experience. Also, it was crazy to go back and become Maya again two and a half years later. But there’s endless challenges to that, and endless rewards to it because as an artist, to put yourself through such an insane bootcamp and come out, I believe, victorious is something I’m proud of.
MF: Can you talk about where we left Maya at the end of the second film and where we find her at the start of ‘Chapter 3’?
MP: Where we leave Maya is she’s accidentally or not so accidentally, killed Pin-Up Girl (Ema Horvath) after seeing that the people who saved her on the street are dead in their home and knowing that the Strangers are nearby and close. She’s meant to be saved by this ambulance and ultimately is not saved and kills Pin-Up Girl. Then, she’s watching in the woods as Scarecrow mourns Pin-Up Girl. I think that’s when the receptors start clicking for her that these aren’t just people who know each other. They have real intimate relationships and she’s just taken away an important person to this guy, and he’s going to come after her. You pick up in ‘Chapter 3’, literally right where you left off. That last scene in ‘Chapter 2’ is exactly where we start in ‘Chapter 3’. You don’t miss anything. She is no longer fighting to survive. I think she’s angry and more fed up and wants to fight back.
(L to R) Madelaine Petsch as Maya and Gabriel Basso as Gregory in ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’. Photo Credit: John Armour.
MF: As an actress, are you happy with the way the story ends for your character, and do you think fans will be satisfied with the conclusion of the series?
MP: I’m very satisfied with it. I love the moral gray area that we play with in the final moments of this movie. I like watching her not know what she’s going to do in that final scene. I really do believe she walked in and had no idea which direction she was going to go in. I think even after she’s made her decision, there are moments of what is she going to do next? I don’t think we all know what her direction is in life. Although I think there is a large section of horror fans who want totality and want answers, there’s also an equally large portion that likes it open-ended and likes questions, although there is a wrapped-up scenario at the end. There is a lot of open-endedness and “what do you think she does next? Who do you think she’s become? What is she left with?” I like conversation around horror films. That’s the personal kind of film that I like. But there’s a large section of people who wants a finished product. So, I think it will be divisive, but that’s my favorite kind of filmmaking.
MF: What was it like working with director Renny Harlin on this series and what did you learn from watching the way he executed his vision for this trilogy?
MP: It’s so funny because every director has such a specific style in the way that they operate. It is my job to become a chameleon to that. I have this amazing video of Renny crawling on the floor the way he had imagined me crawling. I had this moment where I was like, “Renny Harlin is in front of me crawling through leaves right now. What is my life?” He’s a behemoth director. He’s wonderful and he’s so specific about the way he wants to shoot things and the way that he wants things to come together. But he’s also very collaborative, which I think is a rare combination to have as a director who’s so accomplished. He’ll come and say to me, “Okay, I really want to open this with a big crane shot where it reveals you this way. I wanted you standing here. What is your intuition? Where do you want to be?” I think that kind of humility in somebody as big as him is cool and I got lucky. I have so many wonderful things to say about Renny.
(L to R) Renny Harlin, Madelaine Petsch and Courtney Solomon at San Diego Comic-Con 2025.
MF: Finally, what will you remember most about the shooting this trilogy?
MP: That I’m literally a crazy person for signing onto three movies to shoot all at one time. Who is that girl, honestly? The things that I do are just insane, but I’m proud of it. I got to learn a lot about being a producer and how to edit and how that process works. I got a great relationship with Lionsgate, who I consider family now and (Producer) Courtney (Solomon) and Renny. So, I have nothing but good things to say about this process. I feel very lucky.
A scene from ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’. Photo Credit: Jordy Clarke/Lionsgate.
What is the plot of ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’?
Tethered by a frightening conclusion, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and the Strangers are locked on an unavoidable, unforgiving collision course — a showdown that proves they’re far from strangers now.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’?
Madelaine Petsch as Maya
Gabriel Basso as Gregory
Ema Horvath as Shelly
Richard Brake as Sheriff Rotter
‘The Strangers – Chapter 3’ opens in theaters on February 6th.
Kathryn Bigelow is the perfect person to handle an inordinately tense, gripping and powerful near-real time military thriller. Less a war film more a story of the buildup to potential conflict, it marks her successful return to moviemaking following the less-than-enthusiastic reaction to 2017’s ‘Detroit’.
And this is a talent who deserved better than to sit on the sidelines for years.
Script and Direction
Kathryn Bigelow attends the Netflix film ‘A House of Dynamite’ NYFF Main Slate Premiere and Q&A on September 28, 2025 in New York City. Photo: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Netflix.
Noah Oppenheim, an NBC news veteran, has been behind scripts including ‘Jackie’ and the recent Netflix series ‘Zero Day’, and pumps up the tension with a structure that resets the clock on the story across three acts, telling the same story of a missile headed to the US from an unknown aggressor from different viewpoints up and down the command chain from isolated military bases to the hubs of the White House and the Pentagon.
While the switch in focus means some characters are better served than others, and some of the more movie-ish peeks into personal lives dip precariously close to cheese, it still works.
Bigelow keeps the camera moving and the tension levels high for this one, aided by Volker Bertelmann‘s doomy, evolving score. It’s the director’s best in years and deserves to be seen.
With such a big cast to service, it’s impressive how many big names Bigelow has recruited here. Standouts include Rebecca Ferguson’s steely, but human operations officer at the White House, Jason Clarke as her boss, Gabriel Basso as a nervy National Security Advisor thrust into a new level of responsibility and Jared Leto as Secretary of Defense Baker, at once outraged by the lack of efficiency in his country’s response to the weapon headed its way a terrified for his estranged daughter (an underused Kaitlyn Dever).
If there’s a weak link here, it’s Idris Elba, who never really convinces as the President.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Renny Harlin about his work on ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2′, where the new movie starts off, revealing the Strangers’ backstory, and the challenges of shooting Chapters 1-3 at the same time.
‘The Strangers – Chapter 2’ Panel At San Diego Comic-Con International 2025 at San Diego Convention Center on July 24, 2025 in San Diego, California. Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Lionsgate.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Harlin, and Madelaine Petsch.
‘The Strangers – Chapter 2’ director Renny Harlin.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about where ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ left off and where we find Maya when ‘Chapter 2’ begins?
Renny Harlin: Our whole concept for the three chapters was that we would take the original movie, use it as a premise in our first chapter, set the stage, and play with the idea of what if the female lead didn’t die as she apparently did in the original movie? What if she didn’t die? What would happen the next day? Basically, these three movies that we made take place in four days, and it’s like one, four-and-a-half-hour movie that is chopped up into three pieces. So, we left her in the first movie with her fiancé having been brutally murdered by these home intruders, but she doesn’t die. We find her in a local little hospital in the same town where the murder has happened. She wakes up in the hospital and she realizes her fiancé is gone, and she’s survived, but things are about to get much worse.
‘The Strangers – Chapter 2’ opens in theaters on September 26th.
MF: Can you talk about your choice to explore the backstory of the Strangers in this chapter?
RH: Well, we felt that there were two parts to this mystery. One was exploring our final girl, our survivor, Maya, and her psychological landscape. Where do you go after this brutal event, and when it continues, are you going to just fall apart and give up, or are you going to fight or flight? Then the other side of the coin is the Strangers, is the movie is called ‘The Strangers’. You can ask the people who go into this town, are they the Strangers, or are the killers, the Strangers? Anybody can have their own opinion, but we wanted to explore them more, and I think the great thing about the original movie and our whole series is that there’s no rhyme or reason for these crimes. We’re not going to explain why this person does this. It’s not because this event happened to them and its revenge or something like that. Serial killers don’t have any motive except that they are serial killers, and they usually pick their victims randomly. So, we wanted to look under the hood a little bit and give the audience some clues to what makes these people tick. In the second movie, you’ll find out maybe something about the identities and then in the third movie, you will find out a lot more. But why they do it and so on, will probably always be a mystery, because it is the randomness of these attacks that is so terrifying, and that’s how most of these kinds of horrible killings happen all over America, unfortunately, in real life.
Madelaine Petsch as Maya in ‘The Strangers — Chapter 2’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges and the advantages of shooting three movies at once?
RH: Absolutely. It was a challenge. It was a privilege and a challenge, because as a filmmaker, when do you get to explore your characters for four and a half hours in one go? Never. On the other hand, the fact that we were shooting three movies together, we couldn’t shoot chronologically. We couldn’t say, let’s shoot movie one now and then movie two and then movie three. To make it economically, and practically viable, we must use whatever locations we had in common between the movies, and there were some key locations that play a part in each movie. For example, the house, you know, it’s a home invasion. So, the first movie takes place almost entirely in the house. Then that house will still play a certain kind of a role in the subsequent movies, but, much smaller. Then there are some other locations, a hospital or the diner in the town that will appear in all the chapters. When we were in the house, we were going to shoot everything in the house. That means that sometimes we could be shooting Monday morning, we could be in the second chapter and Monday afternoon in the first chapter and then Tuesday morning in the third chapter. It was challenging for everybody in the crew, from the makeup and the art department to wardrobe, and to the actors, of course, and especially to Madelaine, having to emotionally be able to go from one place to another like this quickly. For me to keep track of like, okay, where are we in the story, what’s happening now? What’s the tempo, what’s the style? Where are the characters emotionally? So, I made this chart where I went through all the three scripts, or the one very long script, then charted exactly where I think the character is emotionally in each scene. Because if you have a dramatic scene, she’s screaming and she’s crying. But then when you string those scenes together, you will end up with just like one big crying and screaming thing for one and a half hours. So, you must dole it out in the right amount and doses and the key was really to always remember, where are we emotionally now? Are we at the low or the high or the middle or whatever?
Madelaine Petsch as Maya in ‘The Strangers — Chapter 2’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate.
What is the plot of ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’?
The Strangers are back – more brutal and relentless than ever. When they learn that one of their victims, Maya (Madelaine Petsch), is still alive, they return to finish what they’ve started. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya must survive another horrific chapter of terror as The Strangers – driven by a senseless, unceasing purpose – pursue her, more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’?
Madelaine Petsch as Maya Lucas
Gabriel Basso as Gregory
Ema Horvath as Shelly
‘The Strangers – Chapter 2’ opens in theaters on September 26th.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with veteran director Renny Harlin about his work on ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’, reinventing the franchise, his plans for the upcoming films, building suspense, creating rules for ‘The Strangers’ world, and his casting process.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Harlin, Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez.
(L to R) Froy Gutierrez, Madelaine Petsch and director Renny Carlin on the set of ‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’. Photo Credit: John Armour.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about taking on this horror franchise and what you wanted to do to reinvent it and put your own personal stamp on it?
Renny Harlin: I am a big fan of the original ‘Strangers’, and I wouldn’t have done a remake or a sequel to it. But when I was presented with this challenge and opportunity of taking the premise of the original movie, which is a very realistic home invasion story, and then expanding on that for three movies, in essence, a four-and-a-half-hour odyssey of horror, I felt like you don’t get this opportunity ever to really go deep into the psychology of the victims and also the killers themselves. It was challenging, but it was incredibly rewarding to be able to do this.
‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’. Photo Credit: John Armour.
MF: Did you create rules for yourself for this world? Do you understand who the strangers are and why they’re doing what they’re doing?
RH: Very interesting point. What was special about the original film was that there were no answers. It was a random act of senseless violence, which unfortunately happens in this world of ours. We wanted to keep that theme alive throughout the three movies, so we answer some things that people have been wondering since they saw the original, such as who Tamara is, for example. But then we leave a bunch of things unanswered. We do dig deep into the psychology of these killers and study what makes a sociopath tick, but we don’t wrap it up and put a bow on top of it. We want to keep it open like the original film was.
‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’. Photo Credit: John Armour.
MF: Can you talk about the challenges of building suspense with a movie like this?
RH: The key principle was very clear, and you asked about if I made rules. The number one rule was reality. It’s so easy, especially I think a filmmaker like me who has done action movies, is to think bigger is better. But in this movie, smaller was better, and I always had to check with myself that I was keeping things real. This is nothing supernatural, this is not fantastical. This is about you and me in this extraordinary situation and challenge, and that was the most important thing to always keep in mind. Telling the story, directing the actors, finding the angles for the camera and so on, just the tension, the fear and the sense of dread comes from the fact that it’s so relatable that we all could end up in this horrifying situation.
(L to R) Froy Gutierrez as “Ryan” and Madelaine Petsch as “Maya” in ‘The Strangers’ Trilogy, a Lionsgate release. Photo Credit: John Armour for Lionsgate.
MF: Finally, can you talk about your casting process and what were you looking for when casting the characters of Maya and Ryan?
RH:Liv Tyler starred in the original film, and she did a fantastic job. She was beautiful, she was vulnerable, and she was interesting, so those were big boots to fill. We saw tons and tons of actors and realized this can’t be just any attractive, good actor. When we met Madeleine, which was through a Zoom call first, we were just really impressed by her intelligence, by her passion, by her insightfulness, and her charm. She very soon became our number one choice and ended up really becoming a partner in this endeavor in terms of working on the script with us and really understanding the full scale of the three movies, and having the physicality to be able to go through what she needs to go through in the subsequent films. Then with Froy, we wanted to find somebody who would have the chemistry with her, and again, he’s a great actor and just a sweet guy. There was just this certain innocence that we wanted to have in him so that it would be so painful to see him have to go through this stuff. I think most of the audience doesn’t consider them being these tough people who could deal with knife-wielding and ax-wielding killers, so I think that he’s also very relatable in this role.
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What is the plot of ‘’The Strangers: Chapter 1’?
Maya (Madelaine Petsch) drives across the country with her longtime boyfriend, Ryan (Froy Gutierrez ), as the pair begin a new life together in the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon and they are forced to spend the night in an isolated Airbnb home. Through the night they are terrorized by three murderous masked strangers.
Who is in the cast of ‘’The Strangers: Chapter 1’?
(Left) J.K. Simmons in Prime Video’s ‘Big Sky.’ Photo: Chuck Hodes. Copyright: Amazon Studios. (Right) Clint Eastwood in ‘The Mule.’ Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
Preview:
J.K. Simmons is part of the cast of Clint Eastwood’s latest film.
He’ll be a juror in the legal thriller.
The film has yet to lock down a release date.
Given how fast he works –– even at the age of 93 –– Clint Eastwood is already finished shooting his new movie, ‘Juror #2’. The movie had to shut down production when the actors’ strike hit but geared back up again in early November and is now in the editing stage.
(L to R) Director Clint Eastwood and Andy Garcia on the set of ‘The Mule.’ Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
Written by Jonathan Abrams, ‘Juror #2’ will follow a member of the jury of a murder trial who suspects he may have had some part in the victim’s death –– in fact, possibly killed them himself in a vehicular accident –– and is caught in a moral conundrum of whether to use his secret to sway the jury away and protect himself or turn himself in to the justice system he is participating in.
Nicholas Hoult is playing the lead role of the juror, Justin Kemp, with Toni Collette as the district attorney on the case.
Eastwood had reportedly been weighing several scripts and in recent months zeroed in on this film as his likely final project.
(L to R) J.K. Simmons as Walter Boggs and Frank Grillo as Pauly Russo in the action/thriller, ‘One Day as a Lion,’ a Lionsgate release. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.
The actor, who won an Oscar for ‘Whiplash’, might be most recognizable to genre fans as J. Jonah Jameson, the grumpy Daily Bugle editor he played across Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy (and who has popped up since in Jon Watts’ take on the story as an alt-universe variant of Jameson who fronts a web news series).
In addition to those projects, he’s playing a swole Santa in the Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans holiday film ‘Red One’, though that won’t be released until next year’s Christmas season.
When will ‘Juror #2’ be in theaters?
As of right now, ‘Juror #2’ is still awaiting a release date. There is a chance that Warner Bros. will look to release the movie close to awards season next year, touting it as Eastwood’s final film.
Clint Eastwood in Wolfgang Peterson’s ‘In the Line of Fire.’
Premiering on Netflix beginning March 23rd is the new action thriller series ‘The Night Agent,’ which was created by Shawn Ryan (‘The Shield’) and based on author Matthew Quirk’s novel of the same name.
What is the plot of ‘The Night Agent?’
‘The Night Agent’ follows FBI Agent Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) as he is thrown into a vast conspiracy regarding a mole at the highest levels of the United States government. To save the nation, Peter plunges into a desperate hunt for the traitor, while working with the terrorized ex-CEO Rose Larkin (Luciane Buchanan) and protecting her from the people who murdered her aunt and uncle.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hong Chau about her work on ‘The Night Agent,’ the complex plot, her approach to her character, her research, surviving awards season, and how she chooses her projects.
Hong Chau stars in Netflix’s ‘The Night Agent.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Hong, Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanan.
Moviefone: To begin with, congratulations on your Oscar nomination and surviving awards season.
Hong Chau: Thank you. It was a really incredible ride. It’s kind of crazy that it’s come to an end and we’re just immediately jumping into something else. It has my head spinning right now.
MF: At this point in your career, how do you choose the roles and projects that you are involved in?
HC: I think it’s a combination of people, either directors or showrunners seeing me in something else and just thinking of me for the part in whatever project they have going on. I’ve been really lucky that the people who are interested in me, who approach me, I’m also interested in what they’re doing. It’s been really nice that I haven’t had anything that I thought was too strange or out of my wheelhouse.
MF: What was it about ‘The Night Agent’ and playing Diane Farr specifically that interested you in this project?
HC: Well, I had just never done anything in this genre. It’s a political thriller. It’s got a lot of action and I’ve never done anything like that. I’ve never played a figure of authority in the government and it was just a nice opportunity to get to play in that world.
MF: What kind of research did you do for this series?
HC: I read the book that the show is based off of. Whatever questions I had about how things would normally be handled and what the proper protocol and demeanor would be, I would just ask the writers who are also on set. Because Shawn Ryan really encourages the writers to also act like producers and to have that on set experience. Everybody that I needed was really there for me to use as a resource.
MF: Can you talk about the physical transformation you made for this role? Was the character written that way or are those all specific choices that you made for your performance?
HC: Yes, because I felt like I needed something to help me get into that character. I didn’t feel like I naturally have that sort of life experience and gravitas. I think the character’s written a little bit older than I am in real life. I just wanted to work towards that and have everything in terms of her appearance really back up and support who this woman is in her career and in her life. I did ask for the hair and some glasses just to give her that appearance of somebody who has been really working hard her entire life and who’s just completely devoted to this career. I really enjoyed it. It was a different look for me and I think the producers might have been a little bit scared at first, but we had a wonderful hair department and they were very well versed in wigs. They was able to create something really wonderful for us.
MF: Finally, can you explain what a Night Agent is in the context of the series?
HC: Well, there is a phone in the basement of the White House that is manned by a low level government employee. Usually, the phone never rings and the only time it rings is if there’s some trouble. One night, it does ring and it sets off a whole series of events, which hopefully audiences will find really entertaining.
Hong Chau attends the ‘The Night Agent’ Los Angeles special screening at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 20, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Netflix.
He’ll play the lead role of J.D Wade in “Hillbilly Elegy,” which Ron Howard is directing for Netflix. He joins Oscar nominees Amy Adams and Glenn Close in the adaptation of the best-selling memoir by J.D. Vance.
J.D. is based on the author’s own upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, where he was raised among working-class “hillbillies” dealing with poverty, alcoholism and abuse.
Inspired to pursue an education and dream big his by his larger-than-life grandmother (Close), he eventually joined the Marines and graduated from Yale Law.
Basso’s most recent film was the legal drama “The Whole Truth” with Keanu Reeves. He also starred for three seasons as Laura Linney‘s son on “The Big C.”
His biggest film so far has been J.J Abrams’ “Super 8,” when he was only 15.
And you might have caught him in the indie “The Kings of Summer,” with future “Love, Simon” star Nick Robinson.
