The Housemaid sequel is official: Sydney Sweeney returns in December 2027 — straight up against Avengers: Secret Wars
Lionsgate watched its $35 million thriller outlast Avatar, and its answer is to do the exact same thing to Marvel, on purpose, with a bigger cast.
The pieces are now all on the board. The Housemaid's Secret is dated for December 17, 2027, with Paul Feig back directing, Rebecca Sonnenshine back adapting Freida McFadden's second novel, and cameras set to roll before the end of 2026.
Sydney Sweeney returns as Millie — and produces this time, alongside Feig, Laura Fischer, and Todd Lieberman. The story follows the book: Millie takes a housekeeping job for a woman she's never allowed to see, and the locked door is hiding something worse than her own record.
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The cast around the locked door
- Kirsten Dunst joins as Wendy Garrick, the unseen wife.
- Paul Anthony Kelly — JFK Jr. in Ryan Murphy's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette — makes his feature debut as Douglas Garrick, Wendy's billionaire husband and Millie's new employer.
- Brittany Snow is in as Marybeth, and Michele Morrone returns as Enzo.
- The long game: Lionsgate has optioned all three of McFadden's Housemaid novels plus a 2024 short story, so this date is the middle of a planned franchise, not a one-off.
That last bullet explains the scheduling nerve. The first film opened December 19, 2025 — the same day as Avatar: Fire and Ash — took third place with $19 million, then refused to drop week over week and finished at $400.5 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.
The opponent has its own problems
December 17, 2027, currently belongs to Avengers: Secret Wars and Warner's The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. But Marvel's half of that date has already moved twice — from May 2026 to May 2027 to December 2027 — and Avengers: Doomsday still has to come out first, this December 18.
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Anthony Russo's own status report from July, on when Secret Wars cameras roll: "So soon it makes us sweat a little bit." Lionsgate, meanwhile, is committing to the date with a finished script, a locked cast, and a model it has already stress-tested against the biggest franchise on Earth.
The Housemaid opened opposite Avatar and finished at $400.5 million on a $35 million budget. Lionsgate dated the sequel opposite Avengers: Secret Wars three months later.