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A sequel is in the works for the blockbuster movie based on the NYT bestselling book

Sydney Sweeney’s 2025 hit erotic thriller sets official streaming date on HBO Max

Image: Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate/Everett Collection

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October is proving to be a great month for erotic thriller fans. Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson are having a blast in Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel Verity, which hits theaters on Oct. 2. But if you prefer your steamy movie viewing at home, The Housemaid will be making its streaming debut on HBO Max in October as well.

Released in December 2025, The Housemaid received largely positive reviews and was a huge commercial success, grossing $400 million on a $35 million budget. The movie arrived on VOD on Feb. 3 and received a physical release on March 17.

What is The Housemaid about?

After spending 10 years in prison, Millie Calloway (Sydney Sweeney) desperately needs a job to meet the terms of her parole. She gets a gig as a housekeeper, living in a mansion in Long Island with Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), his pregnant wife Nina (Amanda Seyfried), and their daughter Cece (Indiana Elle). But tensions rise as Nina and Millie learn more about each other. Nina grows jealous of the time Mlilie spends with her husband, while Millie gets nervous about Nina’s violent mood swings.

The Housemaid is directed by Paul Feig (Ghostbusters, Bridesmaids) and written by Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys). The film is based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 New York Times bestselling novel.

The Housemaid will return

Image: Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection

McFadden followed The Housemaid with two sequels: The Housemaid’s Secret and The Housemaid Is Watching. In January, Lionsgate announced that Feig, Sonnenshine, and Sweeney will all return for an adaptation of The Housemaid’s Secret. The film’s streaming debut on HBO Max offers a perfect chance to catch up before Millie finds herself in a new house helping a woman deal with her abusive husband.

The Housemaid will begin streaming on HBO Max on Oct. 9. %!s()

The problem has blighted Britain for decades, with thousands of girls being raped, beaten and drugged by groups of adult men. The offending has been linked to the deaths of several teenagers.

The government faced a backlash last year – including from Elon Musk, the owner of X – when it initially refused to fund a statutory inquiry into abuse in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

It eventually agreed to hold a national inquiry after a recommendation by the crossbench peer Louise Casey, who carried out an audit.

The inquiry will conduct local investigations and look at the national picture and the response of agencies such as the police, NHS and local and central government.

The Welsh strand will focus on offending across the country, rather than one town or city. There has been cross-party backing in the Senedd for such an investigation.

A number of police operations have targeted grooming gangs in Wales. Last week, four men were jailed for abusing teenage girls in Rhyl, Denbighshire, between 2022 and 2024, in relation to exploitation centred on a coffee house.

Amy Clowrey, a director at Switalskis solicitors, which represents a number of Welsh survivors, said: “It’s not just an English problem. The survivors I represent, and have represented, have always felt [Wales] has been overlooked in the national conversation.”

The inquiry said its Welsh investigation “will provide an important opportunity to examine safeguarding and multi-agency responses, the operation of devolved arrangements, and cross-border working between organisations in Wales and England”.

Longfield said: “Victims and survivors in Wales have waited too long for answers. This work is about establishing the truth, delivering accountability, and setting out clearly what must change so children are better protected in the future.”

Grooming gangs have also been known to operate extensively in Birmingham. In 2010, police documents uncovered by the Birmingham Mail revealed that offenders were targeting children at schools and children’s homes. A large proportion were from the city’s Pakistani-heritage community.

Four years later, Birmingham city council went to court to secure landmark injunctions against a number of men in an attempt to stop them approaching underage girls.

Victims from other parts of the West Midlands have been trafficked into Birmingham to be abused. A previous inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Telford, Shropshire, was told that concerns were raised about this problem as far back as the 1990s.

The inquiry said the investigation “will focus initially on Birmingham but may extend to surrounding, connected or satellite areas where the evidence supports it”.

In June, the inquiry announced its first dedicated investigations, focusing on Oldham, London, Bradford and Keighley. It will also examine whether agencies in areas that have previously held inquiries into grooming gangs – such as Telford, Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham – have adequately addressed the recommendations made.

A central theme across the investigations will be the role played by “ethnicity, religion and culture” in gang-based exploitation.

Lady Casey found that men from “Asian ethnic backgrounds” were overrepresented in recent police investigations into grooming gangs in parts of the north of England. However, she said it had been difficult to paint an accurate national picture due to a lack of data.

She said: “More effort is required to identify the nature of group-based child sexual exploitation and why it appears men of Asian and Pakistani ethnicity are disproportionately represented in some areas, in order to understand it better and to tackle it more effectively.”

Many survivors of group-based sexual exploitation have said they were targeted by “street grooming” gangs, particularly those operating from takeaways and taxi companies. Others say they were introduced to offenders by their peers or family members.

Frontline workers say that as social media platforms have developed, children are increasingly being targeted by networks of perpetrators online.

The national inquiry will look at the evolving nature of exploitation by grooming gangs and the potential role played by technology.

It will run parallel to Operation Beaconport, an investigation being carried out by the National Crime Agency. It will also operate a “national listening project” so victims and their families can outline the impact of the abuse.

• In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

"Transitioning to live service is going to be fucking hard. Everyone said that to me. I've even said that to other people. I was mentally prepared for it to be hard—but I wasn't completely prepared for how hard it was," Grøndal says in an interview with Game Developer. "When you build a game up until launch, you build and you test and you build and you test and you fix things and measure results. So the way that we've been building video games was based on that idea—but now the demands of the players are really high, we feel like we really can't go much faster."

Arc Raiders is sadly a very good example of suffering from success. Sure, the devs had an inkling of how big this game could get, but I don't think anyone could've predicted the heights Arc Raiders would reach. Embark also made no secret of the fact that it simply wasn't as big or well-equipped as other live-service competitors like Activision Blizzard or Riot, but the team still tried to keep up the pace that was expected of them.

This is a recipe for disaster, with Grøndal explaining how "the team [was] super tired" but that they still tried to put "out content as fast as we can but it's not enough, and perhaps it wasn't necessarily interesting enough as well." Trying to keep pace with players that were completing events, sussing out arcs, and exploring maps faster than Embark could add them led to a very long and very stale period, which then saw a huge drop-off in players.

"I'm proud of what we achieved during the first four months of this year," Grøndal adds. "But at the same time, I think we have to be honest at looking at some of the impacts of that. We didn't have the time. You also have a lot of the cost of just maintaining the game—implementing bug fixes, exploits, and other constraints. We were constantly overshooting our capacity and so it was hard to plan when there's so much to do. There's a lot of maintenance and cleanup [that takes up so much of your time]."

It didn't just have a negative impact on the game, as the devs also began to feel the pains of overextending. "The team were super unhappy. To be fair, they were running really hard milestones and that wasn't fun and challenging, so we had to do something. The players were also complaining and I don't think the consistency was high enough."

The cycle only stopped when the team asked themselves "why are we doing this?" and re-evaluated their long-term plan for Arc Raiders. "Everything pointed towards the fact that we were doing it better before shipping, so we need to play to our strengths [...] and what we produce will be better, more interesting, and higher-quality across the board. It also gives us time to work things out instead of just shipping, shipping, shipping. We can actually iterate."

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Grøndal also stresses that they needed to put an end to the ongoing burnout. "It's super important [to protect people]," he says. "I can tell you a personal story. I was burned out. We'd just shipped a Battlefield game [when I was at EA] and I kept pushing so hard that I had to take a break for five months and go on sick leave because I was completely broken. We talk about burnout and it's obviously bad, but being burned out feels super shitty to be honest. It's terrible. I don't recommend it to anyone. Also, it means we lose good people who might be out [of work] for a very long time."

There's always going to be more to do in a live service game like Arc Raiders. And while there are some very serious reworks needed and problems to address—like its anticheat—I'd never want anyone to prioritise content over their health. It's just a game, after all, and more often than not well-rested and happy people create better things. It may take longer to get new content, but a more relaxed and committed approach to Arc Raiders will make for a better game in the longrun—we're already seeing the fruits of that tack with Frozen Trail.

"It's very important for us to create a framework that allows us to be creative while having a good work-life balance," Grøndal adds. "If we think long-term about this product—not just in small increments but big-picture stuff—we need all of these great people. Those are the people who built Arc Raiders in the first place." I couldn't agree more.

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path. %!s()

Speaking with Rolling Stone editor Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Chan and Jamal gave direct insight into the important role that Facebook plays in helping them connect to new followers and their devoted fans alike, all while allowing them to monetize their comedy. Chan and Jamal are part of the Facebook Creator Monetization program which pays creators for Reels, Stories photo and text posts.  In 2025, Facebook paid nearly $3 billion to content creators, and now those earnings are more accessible than ever through Creator Fast Track which provides guaranteed payouts to creators getting started on Facebook. 

“It’s very lucrative,” says Jamal. “We probably generated, since the last quarter, close to, or probably over $1 million.”

The money provides the couple with the rare opportunity to do what they love full time and connect with people all over the world. 

Considering how easy it is for content to get lost on other platforms, Chan observes that on Facebook, “The people who follow us get to see every single video that we post. You’re going to see it, you’re not going to miss it. That’s why I love [it]. It keeps people engaged, we get direct feedback, and it’s always on time. People don’t get lost and never see you again. People are engaged with your story and get to keep up with you. I love that the most.”

Editor’s picks

Their Facebook followers—the number of which seemingly exploded overnight after the pair released the first sketch in their now-iconic hoodie-stealing series—”have been amazing, honestly,” says Jamal, adding, “I feel like it’s the platform we connect with the most. We are millennials, and a lot of our audience and fan base are millennials who relate to what we’re going through, because we talk about and make videos about authentic stuff, things that happen in our relationship, it really just connects and resonates with the people we create content for.”

The couple, who share a daughter named Soleil, are in the process of creating a mockumentary series described by Chan as “Modern Family, but with us.” They continue to produce and put out sketches on Facebook, each new Reel inspiring hundreds of shares and thousands of comments. It’s this devotion, creativity, and, of course, their hilarious point-of-view that has landed them on Rolling Stone’s 2026 Top 25 Creators list, along with Pessoa, Younger, and Hamilon, as well as other big names across social media.

Of making the list, Jamal says, “I was like, ‘Wait, Rolling Stone? Us? This is awesome!’ We were really, really happy.”

Chan agrees, remarking, “Honestly, we’re truly so honored. The list, the people on the list, I’m a big fan of everybody…To be able to be a part of that is so dope.”

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As for their night at the Flower Shop, they were mostly excited to let loose and connect with other creators. 

“Tonight is lit,” says Jamal. “…It’s kind of cool to link up with people from the list and just create in general, because this is what we do.” %!s()

Hampton won Academy Awards for best adapted screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons and The Father. His other film credits include Atonement, The Quiet American and A Dangerous Method, while his work for the stage includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Sunset Boulevard. He has also written and directed three feature films: Carrington, The Secret Agent and Imagining Argentina.

Sassine’s credits include Costa Brava, Lebanon, 1982, Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano and Diaries From Lebanon. In 2016, she co-founded the Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, dedicated to genre cinema in the Arab region.

Stump is known for his work on Breaking Bad, The Morning Show, Quantum of Solace and the first two X-Men films. His honors include an Emmy Award and an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

Billy is a Paris-based producer who founded June Films in 2020 after working with such filmmakers as Jonas Carpignano, Nadav Lapid and Yorgos Lanthimos. Her recent productions include Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, which premiered in competition at Cannes in 2025 and won the Queer Palm and best actress award, and Emma Benestan’s Animale.

Tauraite has appeared in such films as Autumn Ball, The Temptation of St. Tony, The Spy and the Poet and 8 Views of Lake Biwa.

The 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival will take place Nov. 6-22. It will open with Viesturs Kairišs’ Ulya, a co-production between Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania that world-premiered in the Un Certain Regard program of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

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