The premiere of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is almost here! The sequel to 2019’s hit action-thriller will finally hit the big screen this Friday, July 16, 2021, and with it comes a whole new set of deadly escape rooms created by the terrifying Minos Corporation.

The follow-up film sees the return of director Adam Robitel along with stars Taylor Russell and Logan Miller joined by all-new competitors with Holland Roden, Indya Moore, Thomas Cocquerel, and Carlito Olivero.

Ahead of the film’s release Miller and Roden sat down with iHorror to talk about the new film, what they hope fans will enjoy, and the joys of stepping back into a theater after a year of pandemic isolation.

“You know, I was so tired of not getting tortured so I thought I would go back in and experience it again,” Miller joked about his return for the sequel. “Seriously, though, we were so thankful that we got such a great response from the first one that we wanted to put our heads together and try to make it all the greater and all the more fun for the audience. I really do feel like we accomplished that. This one is two times the grand scale and it’s a lot more fun. The first one, it was slow to get into the world of it. With this one, you just jump right in.”

For Roden, however, this wasn’t only the start of something new, but Escape Room: Tournament of Champions was filmmaking on a scale that she’d never really experienced in her career.

“I’ve never been part of a production this big,” she explained. “I was a TV gal and I’ve done a few smaller movies. I watched the first movie when I was getting ready for the audition. I love games and escape rooms myself. It’s such a fun movie, and I love that it’s like a psychological thriller and an amusement park and a horror movie. It’s the whole package. So I was super excited.”

The actress, a self-proclaimed set geek, loved working in the elaborate world of Escape Room, especially considering most of the sets were practical and “real.” Both she and Miller admit to having favorite set-pieces and locations on the shoot.

“You could argue that the set is the main character,” she pointed out. “My favorite was probably the crab shack. They built this Truman Show of a beach set that had the full horizon stop. I love that and I love that the hydraulics on the crab shack actually moved. Like Logan said, the practicals on this movie are incredible. It really felt like the shack was sinking because it actually kind of does.”

“I was really blown away by the subway set they created,” Miller added. “It really was a 360 working subway set that was on all these machines that made everything move properly. Even though we were shooting in South Africa, I felt like we were on Canal Street getting on the Q train. We don’t have to play to a tennis ball on a green screen. We get to experience this stuff. The cool thing is that there’s such minute detail in every single room. These are actually working escape rooms. It’s crazy!”

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions has been tossed around by the pandemic shuffle with a release date in such constant flux that even now it’s hard to believe we’re finally going to see it in theaters. That wait has seemed twice as long for the actors who finished filming in January 2020 only to find themselves in lockdown a month later.

The path back to the big screen has been a rough one of fits and starts. With films like the recent Black Widow drawing in an impressive opening weekend box office, it’s beginning to feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is real and Escape Room is a really cool part of that return, something that Miller said he didn’t even know he needed until he was there himself.

“My first movie coming back was Spiral,” he said. “It was great! You forget how breathtaking a giant screen is and the expansiveness of sound and the visceral experience of the theater. It’s only been a year, but I miss it so much. I’m so glad we’re able to get back again.”

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions will release on July 16, 2021, and you could easily argue that it’s a great way to return to the theater! Its unique blend of tension and fun, chills and thrills is perfect to experience with a group of strangers in the dark, and hopefully, exactly what the doctor ordered to fight off some of the pandemic blues.

Check out the trailer for the new film below, and let us know if you’ll be watching!