Netflix breakout joins Sydney Sweeney’s erotic thriller sequel The Housemaid’s Secret
Producers confirm the screen adaptation of The Housemaid's Secret has lined up fresh faces this week, including a pivotal antagonist, with cameras expected to roll shortly.
The whole The Housemaid saga’s picking up pace, and if you thought the first one was a bit of a wild ride, get comfortable: there’s plenty more on the way. After all, it’s a rare thing when a thriller about a suspiciously convenient maid gig ends up as a bona fide franchise, but here we are.
The Housemaid landed in December 2025 and pulled in $400 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.
The original film, adapted from Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel, was a proper smash for Lionsgate, both at the box office and later when the streaming crowd found it. Sydney Sweeney starred as Millie, the young woman who signed up as a live-in maid for a rich couple (portrayed by Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar), only to discover her employers were up to something properly unsettling. All very glossy, all very dark—classic recipe for a sleeper hit.
The next chapter
Now, Sweeney’s Millie returns in The Housemaid’s Secret, which adapts McFadden’s follow-up novel. This time, Millie accepts a new job—in a house where she isn’t actually allowed to lay eyes on her employer, played by Kirsten Dunst. Paul Anthony Kelly is the husband here, and if the series’ track record is anything to go by, he’s probably not just into stamp collecting.
The cast is filling up with more recognisable faces. As reported by Variety, Brittany Snow is joining as Marybeth, the humble receptionist at the husband’s company. Worth pointing out—the first film wasn’t exactly shy about lobbing a character into a meat grinder, so she’d better keep her wits about her. If anything untoward happens at the office water cooler, don’t say I didn’t warn anyone.
Brittany Snow’s moment
For Snow, this marks another high-profile moment. She’s been around since her John Tucker Must Die and Pitch Perfect days, but recently made headlines with the Netflix series The Hunting Wives. In that one, she plays Sophie—a reasonably wholesome wife and mother whose move from Massachusetts to small-town Texas drops her straight into a mess of obsession, deceit, and murder (cheery stuff). With lines like that on her CV, she should be well prepared for whatever horrors The Housemaid’s Secret throws her direction.
The sequel is being steered by Paul Feig again as director, with Rebecca Sonnenshine (who adapted the first book) back on script duties. Production starts later this year, and the sequel’s already got a release date: it’s hitting cinemas 17 December 2027. Plenty of time for some more plot twists, then.
- Sydney Sweeney as Millie (the housemaid, obviously)
- Kirsten Dunst as the mysterious employer
- Paul Anthony Kelly as the husband
- Brittany Snow as Marybeth, secretary with probable bad luck
- Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar featured in the original film
Franchise mode: engaged
Lionsgate seem to think they’ve got their own thriller goldmine here. McFadden is halfway through writing a third book, The Housemaid Is Watching, which you can probably pencil in for film development unless this next one somehow tanks—which, given previous numbers, looks unlikely. There’s even a theatrical version in the pipeline, which promises to weld together elements of both the novel and the films, so brace yourself for the live-action psychological trauma as well.
And for Snow fans, she’s not just stopping at secretaries—Netflix’s The Hunting Wives is locked in for a second season (no scheduling confirmed yet), meaning she’ll be dividing her time between Texas intrigue and opulent home invasions. It’s a good time for fans of domestic drama with a body count.