EXCLUSIVE: Hot off his breakout turn as John F. Kennedy Jr. in FX’s Love Story, Paul Anthony Kelly has inked a deal to join The Housemaid’s Secret, Lionsgate‘s sequel to its recent holiday box office hit The Housemaid, based on the bestseller by Freida McFadden.

Kelly joins a cast led by the returning Sydney Sweeney and newcomer Kirsten Dunst. Making his feature film debut, he will play Douglas Garrick, the billionaire husband of Dunst’s Wendy, and the new employer of our housemaid protagonist, Millie (Sweeney).

Paul Feig is returning to direct the sequel, working from a script by The Housemaid adapter Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on the second novel in McFadden’s bestselling thriller trilogy. Producers include Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman; Laura Fischer and Feig for Pretty Dangerous Pictures; and Sweeney, through her newly launched Honey Trap banner.

Also returning to the cast is Michele Morrone, who plays Millie’s ally turned love interest, Enzo.

Carly Elter, who oversaw the first movie for Hidden Pictures, is returning as executive producer. Alex Young of Hidden Pictures will also exec produce, with Honey Trap’s Kaylee McGregor co-producing, and Chelsea Kujawa and Maria Ascanio overseeing the film for Lionsgate. It’s slated to open in wide release on December 17, 2027.

Feig’s adaptation of The Housemaid, co-starring Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar, broke out big at the box office this past December, grossing over $400M, with Lionsgate quickly greenlighting the sequel. Based on McFadden’s 2022 page-turner, the film plunges audiences into a twisted world where perfection is an illusion, and nothing is as it seems. Trying to escape her past, Millie (Sweeney) accepts a job as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Sklenar). But what begins as a dream job quickly unravels into something far more dangerous — a sexy, seductive game of secrets, scandal, and power.

In The Housemaid’s Secret, Millie returns, taking a job keeping house for yet another woman she’s never allowed to see — only to discover the truth behind the locked door that threatens to expose secrets far darker than her own.

The Housemaid books have sold over 12 million units. Translated into 40 languages, sequel The Housemaid’s Secret has been a New York Times bestseller for more than 70 weeks and won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Thriller. McFadden published the third book in the series, The Housemaid Is Watching, in 2024.

Lionsgate identified and optioned McFadden’s literary trilogy (plus a fourth entry, a short story) long before the books gained traction, recognizing the series’ potential, and with The Housemaid’s Secret set to enter production later this year, anticipates adapting more of McFadden’s Housemaid thrillers.

Kelly is riding high this year, with Emmy buzz for his first big starring role opposite Sarah Pidgeon in Ryan Murphy’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. He landed the part of JFK Jr. after a months-long search involving around 1,000 actors — cast as a newcomer just a few weeks out from production, after 13 years spent working toward his breakthrough moment.

Clearly impressed with Kelly’s work, Murphy has already enlisted him for a role in the next season of his long-running American Horror Story. The actor is repped by Innovative Artists, Luber Roklin, and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.

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