M. Night Shyamalan Dishes On His Plans For The ‘Split’ And ‘Unbreakable’ Sequel

When Split was released in theaters, fans of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan went in expecting an unexpected twist, because that’s just what he does. They weren’t disappointed. Split did deliver that twist and something more. As mostly everyone knows by now, Shyamalan tied Split together with Unbreakable and later announced that the two films were to be a part of a trilogy with the third film to come at an undetermined date. Now that M. Night Shyamalan has the studio go-ahead and more concrete plans, he’s opening up about what fans can expect in the third film.

Unbreakable and Split Will Get Their Sequel

First we had Unbreakable in 2000 and that’s the story Shyamalan really wants to get back to with the third film in the series, reports Yahoo Movies. Last year’s Split started to do that and it now allows the filmmaker to make the sequel he really wants to make with Glass. Everything’s in the works and Shyamalan even revealed that Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson have both agreed to return for Glass as David Dunn and Mr. Glass/Elijah Price, respectively.

M. Night Shyamalan broke the new first to his Twitter followers.

“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?’ ” the Split filmmaker tweeted. “My new film is the sequel to #Unbreakable AND #Split. It was always my dream to have both films collide in this third film.”

In Split, James McAvoy plays a kidnapper with multiple personalities, who takes Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), a more than capable young woman who fights for her own survival. While Split is, in itself, a compelling story, the real shocker came when Bruce Willis made his appearance at the end of the film. The Unbreakable star’s cameo revealed that the two films do exist within the same universe and also suggested a sequel might be forthcoming.

M. Night Shyamalan is Already Dishing Out the Glass Details

As CNN shares, James McAvoy’s Split character was originally intended to make an appearance in Unbreakable, but, at the last moment, Shyamalan cut the scene from the script. Now, the filmmaker intends to bring McAvoy, Willis, and Jackson all together for Glass.

Universal Pictures, the studio through which Shyamalan is working, has already released a synopsis for Glass.

“Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.”

M. Night Shyamalan also shared that Ms. Taylor-Joy will reprise her Casey Cooke character in Glass, revealing that there’s still much more to her story as well.

“I’m reteaming with my partners @jason_blum and @Universalpics for this crazy comic book thriller,” tweeted the filmmaker, as he added to his Glass teasers.

Jason Blum joined Split as a producer and Shyamalan’s interest in bringing him back for Glass suggests that they worked well together. M. Night may also have found Blum’s style to be similar to his own.

It’s not surprising that Universal is on board with the Unbreakable and Split sequel. Last year, Shyamalan dominated box offices with Split, raking in $275 million worldwide on a $9 million budget. With numbers like that and M. Night Shyamalan’s previous sleeper hit The Visit, the studio is eager for M. Night to work more of his movie magic.

Shyamalan is also attached to TNT’s reboot of Tales from the Crypt, though, at this point, he’s only taking an active role in the first episode, serving as executive producer.

Glass is scheduled to hit theaters on January 18, 2019.

[Featured Image by Matthew Eisman/Getty Images]