Backrooms has made more than USD$400 million worldwide, giving creator and director Kane Parsons one hell of a feature debut. But his dream for where this story ultimately ends hasn’t changed: with a limited television series that can bring the whole thing home.

Parsons was talking about that possibility before the A24 film even opened. During a Smosh interview, he laid out a surprisingly specific goal: “If the first movie does very well, the ideal scenario creatively would be to finish it off with like a 9 episode limited series.” The movie has since done rather better than “very well.”

And in a new interview with Deadline at the Zurich Film Festival, Parsons came back to that same endgame. “I’ve said since the very beginning that the dream scenario would be a limited series for Backrooms to get to the main ending.”

As for how much he can say about the road there: “I can’t say anything but there’s been a very set arc to the whole thing from the beginning, and I just feel absurdly excited…”

Whether Parsons gets to follow that arc all the way through remains to be seen. A USD$400-million hit certainly puts him in a stronger position to try.

What Could Come Before the Backrooms Ending?

The feature was never supposed to explain everything. Parsons’ original YouTube series built its mythology gradually, jumping between people, time periods and pieces of Async’s work while allowing the bigger picture to emerge in fragments.

And the big-screen side may not be finished yet. Dread Central reported earlier this month that Parsons has signed on to direct Backrooms 2 for A24. The studio has yet to formally announce the sequel.

That makes his latest choice of words worth noting. He’s not describing the proposed series as a television spin-off or simply another expansion of the property. He’s talking about it as the route to the main ending.

Parsons Doesn’t Really Consider Backrooms a Horror Movie

Parsons also pushed back on one of the labels that has followed Backrooms throughout its theatrical run: horror.

“I don’t view it as a horror project,” he told Deadline, explaining that horror became the path of least resistance when it came to framing and marketing the film for audiences.

Looking ahead, Parsons said he intends to remain as oblivious to those kinds of labels as possible, adding that he now has “more creative control” over future projects and expects those structures to carry less weight.

It’s an interesting distinction for a movie filled with monsters, dread and some fairly gruesome imagery. Parsons clearly sees the world he’s building as something broader than the genre used to sell it, and his newfound leverage may give him more freedom to explore that going forward.

Spoilers: Where Did the Backrooms Movie Leave Things?

Spoiler warning: Major Backrooms plot and ending details follow.

There’s certainly plenty left unresolved.

By the climax, Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s Clark has become consumed by the world beneath his furniture store. His attempt to connect with Captain Clark, the hulking Still Life fashioned into a grotesque reflection of himself, ends with the creature killing him.

Renate Reinsve‘s Mary survives, but freedom isn’t exactly waiting for her. Async researchers rescue her from Captain Clark, only for Mary to find herself in the organisation’s custody. Phil (Mark Duplass) wants to know what happened inside, and when she asks whether she’s actually going to be allowed to leave, his response offers little reassurance.

Then comes the final sting. Somewhere inside the Backrooms, a malformed Still Life version of Mary sits in a rough recreation of the room where she was questioned.

Exactly what Async intends to do with Mary, how much the organisation really understands about the Backrooms, and why the space is producing warped copies of the people who enter it are all left hanging.

Clark’s journey may be finished, but the “main ending” Parsons is talking about remains somewhere further down the line. After turning a YouTube phenomenon into a USD$400-million theatrical hit, he may now have his best shot yet at reaching it.

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