Sydney Sweeney's The Housemaid Sequel Faces A Major Problem
Paul Feig's heightened, campy thriller "The Housemaid," which became a surprising box-office juggernaut after its release in December 2025, is officially getting a sequel. This sounds like great news if you've seen the movie; /Film's own Witney Seibold praised this compulsively watchable, unexpectedly hilarious, and insanely gory movie by calling it an "excellent, wicked drama" in the vein of Feig's previous thriller, 2018's "A Simple Favor." It's actually a little more complicated, though — and as someone who slogged through author Freida McFadden's entire "Housemaid" novel series, this could be bad news.
Why? Amanda Seyfried's character, Nina Winchester, does not appear in the literary sequel "The Housemaid's Secret," and Seyfried is, by a long shot, the best part of "The Housemaid."
A Lionsgate press release revealed today that Feig and the film's other co-lead, Sydney Sweeney, would return for a "Housemaid" sequel after the first was a runaway hit for its studio. This makes some amount of sense, considering the movie does clearly end with a tease of a potential follow-up. McFadden's sequel novel, "The Housemaid's Secret," gives Millie a whole new situation wherein she works for a seemingly perfect couple with tensions simmering just under the surface, but notably, it's not Nina, whose problems are pretty neatly solved by the end of the first book and movie. Spoilers ahead, but here's precisely how "The Housemaid" sets up a sequel, and why I'm worried about it working without Seyfried.
The Housemaid clearly sets up a sequel, and now it's getting one — but it might only star Sydney Sweeney
If you haven't seen "The Housemaid" or your recollection is just a little fuzzy, here's a refresher. Out of prison for manslaughter and seriously down on her luck, Millie Calloway finds an apparently perfect job working as the titular housemaid for Nina Winchester and her handsome and successful husband Andrew ("It Ends With Us" and "1923" standout Brandon Sklenar). One of the perks is that Millie, who's living in her car at the beginning of the movie, gets to live in the Winchester house, although her room feels alarming even before we learn the truth: It's an attic room with one small window, and the door appears to lock from the outside only.
Eventually, we learn the truth about Nina and Andrew's marriage. Not only is Andrew incredibly controlling, but he's abusive, and he frequently locks Nina in that attic room to teach her a lesson. Nina, as we discover, is using Millie, knowing about her violent past and hoping Millie can seduce and then dispose of Andrew on Nina's behalf.
That's precisely what Millie does after Nina convinces Andrew to leave her and "be with" Millie instead, knowing he'll repeat his old patterns. So how about that sequel? After Andrew is gone and Nina and her daughter Cecelia are safe, Millie visits one of Nina's friends, who bears signs of physical abuse and asks Millie if she can help solve her problem. I've read "The Housemaid's Secret," and the gist is that Millie ends up moving to New York and helping a different wealthy woman in danger with an issue (namely, her horrible husband). This is the throughline that connects Freida McFadden's novels, but it means no Amanda Seyfried.
The Housemaid was a lot of fun, and that's mainly due to Amanda Seyfried's unbelievable central performance
If Paul Feig is trying to create a cinematic universe in which Sydney Sweeney's Millie Calloway is the one constant and leads a handful of "Housemaid" movies, I see one problem right out of the gate: Sweeney doesn't carry "The Housemaid," despite being the ostensible protagonist. Amanda Seyfried does. I personally think Seyfried is one of our generation's most underrated actresses; despite an Emmy for "The Dropout," an Oscar nod for "Mank" and buzz, as of this writing, about a potential nomination for her lead role in "The Testament of Ann Lee," Seyfried's name doesn't seem to come up all that often when we talk about generational talents, and I think that it should! "The Housemaid" proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. As Nina Winchester, a wealthy and pampered housewife who has to orchestrate a romance between Millie and Andrew to escape her husband's clutches, Seyfried is twitchy, funny, and crafts an unforgettable performance — frankly, I think this turn is on the level of Allison Williams' twisted one in "Get Out" (a high compliment coming from me).
Sure, Feig could flip through his proverbial Rolodex and contact any number of huge stars if he's going to faithfully adapt "The Housemaid's Secret" and find someone great to play that story's beleaguered wife, Wendy Garrick, but I feel like it's likely always going to feel empty without Seyfried's wide-eyed, erratic, and genuinely enthralling presence. I'm a big fan of Feig, and I do trust him ... but I left my screening of "The Housemaid" marveling over Seyfried's performance, so I guess we'll see if this lightning can strike twice.
"The Housemaid" is in theaters now.