Alligators are trading the Florida swamp for the New York subway system.
Mason Gooding and Emily Rudd have signed on to lead “Crawl 2,” Paramount’s follow-up to Alexandre Aja’s 2019 creature feature, with production set to begin later this month in Hungary. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the casting, with JoBlo and ScreenRant confirming the details shortly after.
Aja returns to direct, moving the action a long way from where the original left off. The first “Crawl” trapped Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper’s father-daughter duo in a flooded Florida crawl space during a Category 5 hurricane, fighting off alligators that had found their way into the house through the storm surge. This time, according to Just Jared, the setting shifts to New York City, where the gators end up loose in the streets and sewers after a hurricane hits the city.
No character details have been released for either actor’s role. What is confirmed is that Gooding and Rudd already know each other’s work — the two co-starred in 2022’s “Moonshot” alongside Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor, a project ScreenRant notes marked one of their earlier collaborations before this reunion.
Two Rising Horror Regulars
Gooding has spent the last several years becoming one of the genre’s more reliable faces. He’s played Chad Meeks-Martin across the last three “Scream” films, including this year’s “Scream 7,” and led last year’s slasher hit “Heart Eyes.” Before any of that, he broke out in Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut “Booksmart” and went on to reunite with Wilde on “I Want Your Sex.” He’s also the son of Cuba Gooding Jr., and he’s currently starring in Netflix’s Kevin Hart comedy “72 Hours.”
Rudd’s horror credentials run through Netflix’s “Fear Street” trilogy, where she played the dual roles of Cindy Berman and Abigail in “1978” — a role Deadline’s archives note was her breakout in film. More recently, she’s become known to a much larger audience as Nami in Netflix’s live-action “One Piece” adaptation. She’s set to appear in “Whalefall” alongside Josh Brolin and Austin Abrams this October.
A Sequel Seven Years in the Making
Paramount greenlit “Crawl 2” back in August 2024, a full five years after the original opened. That first film turned into both a critical and commercial success on a modest budget, helped in part by an unlikely champion: JoBlo notes that Quentin Tarantino’s public enthusiasm for “Crawl” played a real role in raising Aja’s profile and building momentum toward a follow-up.
The sequel’s writing team includes Jason Harry Pagan and Andrew Deutschman, alongside Aja and his longtime collaborator Gregory Levasseur. Sam Raimi is producing alongside Aja and Craig Flores, with Levasseur and Zainab Azizi serving as executive producers.
With Gooding and Rudd now attached and Hungary set as the production base, “Crawl 2” is officially moving from greenlight to camera-ready — putting Paramount on track for its next round of alligator horror once filming wraps.
