The Smile franchise is heading back to 1995 for its next nightmare. After two movies brought the terrifying entity to the big screen, a new prequel comic is exploring another chapter in the curse’s history, this time against the unlikely backdrop of professional football. IDW Publishing’s Any Given Smile is a five-issue series from writer Stephanie Williams, artist Pablo Collar, colorist Triona Farrell, and letterer Ariana Maher. Any Given Smile #1 arrives on September 23, but Collider had the opportunity to read the first issue early and, without spoiling what awaits readers, it’s safe to say the franchise’s signature grin hasn’t gotten any less disturbing on the page.
Any Given Smile begins in St. Augustine, Florida, as the American Arena League prepares for the biggest championship game in its 20-year history. The Sharks have suddenly turned to backup quarterback Maximillian Dupree, putting him under immense pressure from his teammates and fans. Dupree also has debts to the city’s gambling underworld hanging over him as he prepares for the biggest game of his career. At the same time, a string of deaths begins rocking St. Augustine. A sports journalist starts investigating their possible connection to the approaching championship, while increasingly disturbing visions make it difficult for anyone involved to trust what they’re seeing.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
‘Any Given Smile’ Understands What Makes the ‘Smile’ Franchise So Unsettling
That’s about as much as we can say about the story without spoiling where Williams takes the first issue, but what we can say is that Any Given Smile understands what makes this franchise so unsettling. The movies frequently weaponize the audience’s anticipation, creating situations where you know something horrible could be lurking around the corner without knowing exactly when it will appear. Williams and Collar successfully translate that anxiety to this new medium, including several moments where just turning the page delivers a jump scare of sorts.
The 1995 football setting also gives Any Given Smile an identity distinct from either movie. Sports radio, gambling, championship fever, and Dupree’s sudden opportunity create an unusual environment for Smile, but that’s working in its favor so far to help the curse feel recognizable without just being a retelling of one of the previous movies. It also provides an intriguing glimpse into how long this nightmare has been making the rounds before Rose Cotter ever encountered it. Smile and Smile 2 have only revealed pieces of the entity’s history, and Any Given Smile demonstrates how easily the franchise can explore victims from completely different periods and walks of life.
Any Given Smile #1 goes on sale September 23. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
