After years of silence, the abrupt cancelation of the Norman Reedus-led Silent Hills, and a botched re-release of the franchise’s most popular entries, Silent Hill fans are finally getting their fix. Not only are we getting a fully-fledged remake of Silent Hill 2, but two new separate entries in the franchise. These game announcements also came with other surprising news: the 2006 Silent Hill film is getting a sequel. An actual sequel, mind you, not whatever Silent Hill: Revelation was.

These recent announcements were all confirmed by the franchise’s publisher, Konami, during the Silent Hill Transmission presentation. While fans have enough reason to be excited, those who enjoyed the original Silent Hill film should also be pretty amped for the upcoming sequel, Return to Silent Hill. The film received a whopping six-minute showcase during the presentation, revealing several key details, pre-production stills, and the involvement of the first film’s director Christophe Gans. While we still have a long way to go before Return to Silent Hill is released, we can at least speculate on what we want to see based on what’s been released so far.

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A Faithful Sequel

     Konami

Video game adaptations have changed significantly since the release of the first Silent Hill film. While it was lauded at the time for being a defiant example of what a video game adaptation is capable of, you’re more likely to find something genuinely engaging nowadays instead of something outright terrible. Shows like Halo and Arcane both act as authentic expansions of their source material on top of telling a compelling story, even without prior knowledge of what their respective games are about.

Christophe Gans has had an intimate connection with the Silent Hill franchise for years now, initially securing the rights to make the first film by explaining how and why the games meant so much to him. Not only that, but Gans has also purposefully forged a professional connection between those making the film and Konami itself, promising a sequel that not only expands upon the first film but maintains a level of authenticity that video game adaptations have historically lacked.

Less Gore, More Thought

Silent Hill 2 is an oddity in the Silent Hill series. It lacks a significant connection between the rest of the franchise, minus a handful of references in Silent Hill 4, and tells an almost completely different story compared to the cult-driven plot that made up Silent Hill 1, Silent Hill 3, and the accompanying films. It follows James Sunderland, a man who is mysteriously called back to Silent Hill via a letter from his deceased wife. From there, the adventure is largely driven by the player’s interpretation of events as James meets a variety of twisted characters and horrifying monsters, with the game’s ending being driven by an obscure combination of the player’s actions.

It’s a deliberately cerebral game, meaning that you can’t just throw scary monsters at the screen and expect a similar experience. The town of Silent Hill in this instance directly reflected James Sunderland and his own personal demons, and while this concept would be arguably overutilized in future installments, it still reflects a level of creativity and inventiveness that will have to be transferred onto the silver screen.

Who Should Play James Sunderland?

James Sunderland is crucial to Return to Silent Hill: he’s the game’s original protagonist, the one who shapes the town’s monstrosities, and the first character in the series to canonically encounter the dreaded Pyramid Head. Originally played by Guy Cihi and later replaced by Troy Baker, James was originally given an off-kilter, dreamlike performance that matched the strange personalities and logic-defying world he found himself in. Arguably, part of what made Cihi’s performance so interesting was that it was, at the time, his only voice acting and motion capture role. You can’t exactly replicate it with someone like Chris Pratt.

So, who could theoretically play James Sunderland? It’s a tough question to answer. Some fans have suggested Aaron Eckhart or William Zabka for their close resemblances to James Sunderland, but it’ll ultimately come down to who can capture what makes James as a character work the best. Radha Mitchell did a good enough job at playing Rose in the first Silent Hill film, so we can expect whoever is officially picked for James to do a suitable job at the very least.

Familiar Faces of Silent Hill

Because Silent Hill 2 is largely disconnected from the rest of the franchise, it also brought with it a slew of memorable characters that remain relegated to that game. These include Angela Orosco, a somber woman with a traumatic past, and Eddie Dombrowski, a young man who was subject to ridicule for most of his life. The two are a stark contrast to the personality of James, presenting alternative ways that he could tackle his demons that don’t necessarily result in a positive outcome.

While plot details for Return to Silent Hill remain sparse, we can reasonably expect to see these characters return in some capacity. The first Silent Hill film incorporated multiple characters from the first game, including the heroic officer Cybil Bennett and cult leader Dahlia Gilesspe. As both Angela and Eddie are crucial to the story of the game, it’d come as a shock to see them totally absent from Return to Silent Hill.