'The Strays' Ending: Ashley Madekwe Talks About the Shocking Conclusion & Sequel Ideas

The new movie The Strays has been topping the Netflix charts around the world and fans have been shocked by the ending.

Ashley Madekwe, who you know from shows like Revenge and Tell Me a Story, stars in the film as an upper-middle-class woman whose perfectly crafted life begins to unravel with the arrival of two shadowy figures in her town.

A big twist happens in the middle of the film that changes everything and turns the movie in a different direction, all leading up to that shocking final moment.

Ashley and her co-star Jorden Myrie, who plays Marvin, are opening up about the ending and the possibility of a sequel.

Head inside for the spoilers…

STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!

Ashley plays Neve, a biracial woman who seemingly tries to hide her Black side while living in an upper-middle-class neighborhood that is filled with predominantly white families. Throughout the beginning of the movie, she begins seeing two shadowy figures and we initially assume there’s a supernatural occurrence happening. We later learn these two figures are actually real people and they’re Neve’s two children who she abandoned as infants in order to start a new, more privileged life.

The two children, Marvin and Abigail, weave their way into Neve’s life, all leading up to a gala that is being held at her home. When Neve sees them there, she confronts them and tells them to leave, which is when we learn they’re actually her children. She later meets up with them and gives them $20,000 in hopes that they’ll leave her alone.

Months later, Marvin and Abigail break into Neve’s home and hold her family hostage. The pair terrorize the family throughout the middle of the night and Marvin even kills Neve’s husband.

The shocking ending finds Neve escaping from the house and abandoning her two younger children as well. The film ends with her four children standing together in the house and hearing her drive away, seemingly to go start a new life without them.

So, what did Ashley say about the ending?

In one interview, Ashley was asked about the two times in the movie when Neve is faced with exiting a door and takes a moment to compose herself.

“I think both times she’s confronting herself. I think in the first occasion she’s bolstering herself, psyching herself up. That, ‘you can do this,’ because she’s running from trauma, running from pain. And in the second occasion, I think she’s confronting herself and asking herself if she can live with this choice a second time and ultimately, Neve always puts herself first,” she told GUAP.

In an interview with Total Film, Ashley said, “We went through different iterations of it. The ending was less black and white in the original script but I always inferred that the ending that is there now, that was what was happening, with me leaving. We did that in so many different ways. We did it with a wig, without a wig, change of costume, and I think the way we went was the right way. We left a little room for ambiguity but not really. She’s gone, she’s out of there, she did what she had to do.”

While speaking with That Grape Juice, Ashley and Jorden were asked about a potential sequel.

“We would talk about it on set and start writing our own, what it could be, theorizing. We’d say it close to the mic so someone would hear it,” Jorden said.

Ashley said she’d be happy if the movie stood for itself without a sequel, saying, “It’s a strong ending.” Jorden added, “I think so. It’s one of those endings that the audience will want to fill in what could happened next.”

Make sure to watch The Strays on Netflix if you haven’t yet!