M. Night Shyamalan Sets ‘Unbreakable’ Sequel ‘Glass’ for 2019
After years of toying with and publicly teasing the possibility of a sequel to his 2000 film Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan is finally ready to pull the trigger. The director has officially set a return to his darkly subversive take on the superhero genre as his next project. The follow-up, titled Glass, will hit theaters in 2019 — and those are the basics. If you want to know more, you’re warned of potential SPOILERS for another Shyamalan film with connections to Unbreakable.
…Unless you were already spoiled on those connections thanks to numerous headlines.
THAT SAID, if you’re still with us, then you know that Shyamalan’s next film isn’t just an Unbreakable sequel — it’s also a follow-up to Split.
Shyamalan himself announced the Unbreakable sequel news today on Twitter, seemingly unconcerned with potentially spoiling Split for those who have yet to see it:
Finished the new script. It’s taken 17 years but I can finally answer the #1 question I get, ‘Are you making a f#&@ing sequel to Unbreakable or what?’ My new film is the sequel to Unbreakable AND Split. It was always my dream to have both films collide in this third film.
(To be fair, people should be able to experience Split un-spoiled. At the same time, I’m usually of the thinking that a good film can’t truly be spoiled and your ability to enjoy said film shouldn’t hinge on twists — but that’s kind of what Shyamalan has built his career on, so in this case, having the movie spoiled for you is kind of a bummer.)
This isn’t the first time Shyamalan has expressed his desire to unite characters from both films. The ending of Split featured a divisive post-credits stinger with Bruce Willis’ David Dunn, revealing that the film takes place in the same world as Unbreakable and setting up a potential showdown between Willis’ impervious protagonist and James McAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with 23 identities — a few of which aren’t very nice (and one that is outright villainous, to say the least).
Shyamalan also confirmed that Willis, McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy will all return to reprise their roles for Glass, along with Samuel L. Jackson’s Unbreakable antagonist Elijah Price (aka Mr. Glass himself). Universal will distribute the project, which is being produced by Blumhouse (who also handled Split) and will hit theaters on January 18, 2019.