A 'Bird Box' Sequel Is On Its Way This Fall — As A Book

Time to open up the Bird Box universe again. After Josh Malerman's 2014 post-apocalyptic thriller novel inspired the Netflix mega-hit starring Sandra Bullock and that life-threatening viral "challenge," we're getting a Bird Box sequel this fall. But wait a bit before you stumble blindly toward Netflix's homepage — this is a sequel book written by Malerman, who confirmed that his next post-apocalyptic "Bird Box novel," titled Malorie, will be hitting bookshelves in October.

In an interview with Esquire, Bird Box author Josh Malerman confirmed that his novel in the Bird Box post-apocalyptic universe will be published on October 1. The Bird Box sequel, titled Malorie, will focus on the first book's main character, who is played in the Susanne Bier film by Sandra Bullock. Malerman admitted to Esquire, as part of a promotional interview for his new novel Inspection coming this week, that it was watching the Netflix film adaptation that convinced him to write a sequel novel:

"I wanted to get to know [Malorie] even better. At the end of the movie, I turned to my girl Allison and said, 'I want to know what happens next!' and she's like, 'Well, you know, you could make that happen,' so it really was this warm feeling."

Bullock's performance in Bird Box earned raves from critics as well as introduced the Oscar-winning actress to a few Gen Z-ers who bafflingly have never been exposed to her career-defining performances in Speed or Miss Congeniality. (Not even The Proposal?!) But of course, Bullock's character was also the inspiration for the "Bird Box challenge" in which children endanger their lives by running around blindfolded for the clicks. Netflix can tout its success with viewing numbers for Bird Box all it wants, but all it succeeded in doing was make me feel old.

But blindfold or not, Bullock's Malorie did resonate with viewers, and with Malerman in particular. "In the time between Bird Box coming out and the time since I've been writing Malorie, I've been asked a ton of times: people want to know what happened with Boy and Girl," he said to Esquire. "But as much as I care about Boy and Girl, this isn't their story. The Bird Box world is Malorie's story, and I wanted to know more about her."

It's also possible that Netflix's money, in addition to Bullock's performance, inspired Malerman to write Malorie, as the streaming giant is fond of developing sequels to its biggest original hits. With Malorie set to hit bookshelves on October 1, 2019, I wouldn't be surprised if a Netflix feature film sequel would follow soon after.