If you can believe it, Lionsgate wants to try and convince us an adult woman looks like a child for a second time with the newly announced Orphan 3.

I’m about to spoil the twist for the original Orphan film here, so if you’ve not seen it and feel particularly strongly about spoilers, maybe don’t read on. Back when Orphan came out in 2009, the titular character played by Isabelle Fuhrman was an actual child at the time, so while that twist about the character actually being a 33-year-old woman was quite silly, and required some suspension of disbelief, at least the actor actually was young. When it came to the second film, a prequel released in 2022, that suspension of disbelief needed to be ramped up a bit because Fuhrman was now an adult, though some movie magic helped to convince otherwise. Except now Lionsgate is trying to make us all think she’s meant to look like a child once again, as Variety has reported a threequel is in the works.

The film is set to bring back Fuhrman, with William Brent Bell returning from the second film as director, and David Coggeshall also returning to pen the screenplay. Dark Castle Entertainment is handling production duties once again, with Lionsgate serving as distributor. “Dark Castle is excited to announce another terrifying chapter in the Orphan saga,” Dark Castle co-ceo Norman Golightly said in a statement. “With the past success of the first two movies and another thrilling storyline, we are confident that Orphan 3 will be a must-see movie for both current fans of the franchise, and new fans alike.”

It all sounds to be quite early days for the film still, with plot details being kept under wraps for now, but mostly I’m just excited to see how they try to make Fuhrman look like a child again – that second film presumably would have been shot three years ago, and I can only imagine shooting for this one will be next year at the earliest, so, good luck to them on that.