The puzzles in 2019’sEscape Roomseemed pretty challenging. But, the fact that the sequel involves a bunch of Minos Escape Room champions getting together to play another round essentially necessitates that directorAdam Robiteland the team make this batch far more difficult to solve.
After the events of the first film, Zoey (Taylor Russell) is determined to put a stop to Minos’ operation. She convinces Ben (Logan Miller) to join her on a road trip to New York to follow a lead, but while there, they unexpectedly find themselves right smack in the middle of a game again - this time with other people who have played and survived before, includingHolland Roden’s Rachel.
WithEscape Room: Tournament of Championsdue in theaters on July 16th, I got the chance to chat with Miller and Roden about their experience making the new movie. Back when the first film came out, a hot topic of conversation was the most difficult escape room to film, the billiard room. What took that honor in film #2? Here’s what Miller picked:
“Subway was the first one and I think that we really wanted to hit the ground running with the first room, really make that pop for the audience. And wow. I mean, what I saw in the trailer and I saw in the film was something that I didn’t ever expect. It was an added element that just felt super real and I was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish.”
Roden, however, went for another option due to what was required of her in the stunt department:
“The bank was hard for myself just because the counters were high and I had to do the most amount of jumping onto the counters and you weren’t allowed to use your hands because that might set something off, and so it was just near impossible jumping to something [chest high] … that’s a different movie. That’s a Marvel movie.”
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So yes, hype is high to see how theEscape Roomteam up the stakes with their set pieces this time around, but the new film also affords them the opportunity to continue Ben’s story and have him grow further. He wasn’t exactly the most likable guy at the beginning of the first film, but through that harrowing experience, Ben managed to step up and ultimately become a very loyal source of support to Zoey. InEscape Room: Tournament of Championswe’ll see Ben continue to forge forward and that was actually something that Miller himself got to be very involved in:
“It was great being able to continue this story. I mean, I’ve done some series roles where it’s like you continue to live the story, but that’s kind of a day in, day out situation. Two years later here we are working with Ben and Zoey, and trying to figure out how we can take down this evil force known as Minos. It gave us the time to kind of really ponder on how we were gonna continue this series, and that was a big collaborative experience with Adam, myself, Taylor and the rest of the creative crew. The great thing is is everybody listens and everybody has kind of a say in what goes and I got to sit down with Adam and the screenwriter to try to figure out how I would portray this character the best and my voice was heard.”
Looking for more from Miller and Roden? Catch our full chat at the top of this article to find out what game shows they’d most like to compete on, if they’d dare participate in an extreme haunted house and more!
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