Ti West’s X: Has a sequel already been filmed?

X opened on Friday, March 18, and most of the fan word of mouth seems to be very positive, so a sequel would seem inevitable. But those of us who saw the film and stuck around through the end credits were handed a pretty exciting Easter Egg.

Please note that there are spoilers contained within this article; so, if you haven’t already seen Ti West’s gritty, gory, raunchy film, you might want to come back to this later. The rest of you, please feel free to read on.

X was a fun throwback to 70s era horror like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; it was even filmed to look like a 70s grindhouse flick. In it, a group of friends set off with stars in their eyes to film a pornographic movie, expecting it to hit big like Debbie Does Dallas. The motley crew consists of aspiring starlets Maxine and Bobby-Lynne (Mia Goth and Brittany Snow), Producer Wayne (also Maxine’s boyfriend, and played by Martin Henderson), leading man Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi, AKA Kid Cudi), cameraman RJ (Owen Campbell) and RJ’s prudish girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega).

When the cast and crew arrange to stay at a boarding house, they meet Howard, the elderly man who owns the place and lives in a nearby house with his wife Pearl. As it turns out, the couple are very dangerous, particularly Pearl. She may look frail and feeble, but she sure has a way with a pitchfork!

Maxine is the final girl at the end of the story, and we watch her drive away in a truck. As it turns out, it’s very telling that Mia Goth played both Maxine and the elderly murderous Pearl onscreen.

Patrons who sat through the end credits to X were rewarded with a “Coming Soon” trailer for a film called Pearl, starring Mia Goth as the title character.

That’s right, friends, fans have a prequel to look forward to, and it was secretly filmed back-to-back with X.

Not only that, writer-director Ti West has proclaimed that he is also working on a sequel to the original film to complete the trilogy. According to West, “You can’t make a slasher movie without a bunch of sequels.”

Interestingly, each of the first two movies were filmed in entirely different ways to reflect the time period of the settings. X, which is set in the 70s, was filmed to look as if it were recorded on grainy 16mm film, giving it a grindhouse feel.

Pearl, on the other hand, is set during World War I, and filmed in bright colors to give it an old-time Hollywood look and feel. It is said to give us the backstory of Howard and Pearl’s boarding house, and, in theory, show us how Pearl became so…well, murderous.

As far as the sequel to X is concerned, West says it will more closely reflect the age of home video and its influence. Whether or not Mia Goth will return for the as-yet unnamed sequel has not been announced, as West is still currently in the writing process.

So, X fans can rejoice in the fact that they have one prequel and one sequel to look forward to. And, if you want to see the trailer for Pearl, you will have to watch (or re-watch) X in a theater…just make sure you stick around for the credits.

Did you bravely venture into a theater to see X on the big screen? Tell us what you thought about it in the comments section.