M. Night Shyamalan Still Considering Unbreakable 2. Will It Ever Happen?

Posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson

Admittedly, the above headline could be published in The Onion, no prob. It’s been nearly eight years since the release of Unbreakable, and the possibility of a sequel, let alone the planned trilogy, seems to diminish with time, even as superhero films enter the subversive, contemplative-mythos stage that makes M. Night Shyamalan’s best film so ahead of the curve and a dark horse genre classic.

In June, Shyamalan cited the film’s marketing—which exploited the “shocking twist” angle and neglected the comic book plot—along with the middling reviews that followed as the watershed moment when perceptions of his M.O. in Hollywood and with audiences soured. Though the film is still seen as a financial disappointment, it grossed $250 million worldwide, not to mention DVD sales. And if you read between the lines, I think he sees catharsis in making a widely-regarded successful sequel to Unbreakable. Shyamalan’s passion for the film, characters, and the universe he created won’t go away (and neither has its fans’, which includes us at Slashfilm). And in my mind, there’s the guy who made this film, and another who made everything else. He tells Splashpage…

“I genuinely just asked this question the other day — should I make Unbreakable 2? I do love the [comic book movie] genre, I just wanna make sure that I’m able to express who I am,” explained Shyamalan. “I don’t want to get so lost in the subject that I have to neuter everything that’s me in it, so maybe Unbreakable is the comic book thing I should do — I keep coming back to that.”

Your Samuel L. Jackson-instincts should inform that the actor would be game to reprise Mr. Glass, and he is. And Bruce Willis has stated his love of the film in the past and disappointment with critics’ lazy checklist with The Sixth Sense. Though inherent, the original film never reveals the full powers of Willis’s protagonist, David Dunn, meanwhile Mr. Glass’s descent into evil has many sinister miles left in the tank. It will take more than wistful soundbites and warm spirits to bring Unbreakable 2 to fruition, not to mention the tentative title, but if Hellboy—financially, an apt comparison; in terms of marquee value and quality, not so much—can warrant a sequel, I don’t think Shyamalan’s is a pipe dream. If he truly wants it. Then again, if the sequel rights are parked at Disney…umm, good luck?

Discuss: Do you think Unbreakable 2 will ever happen? Why or why not?

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  • orange cinema
    i think everything about this is a positive idea:

    -maybe in revisitng this story, night could regain some of his skills that have waned recently.
    -sam jackson is another who has become a pardoy of himself, a solid role/story could get him back on track as well.
    -willis is a badass, and i'd love to see dunn again.

    i know i am a broken record, but i'd love to see a DIFFERENT type of comic book film - and unbreakable already is exactly that. so the sequel would be another stab at a different view on this phenomenon. I love seeing a very familiar film (comic films, in this case) through unique eyes, and i think this would just be an awesome project for all parties involved.
  • Nawid Ahrary
    It's one of the best superhero origin stories ever and I don't know if the movie was really built for a sequel. What would it really be? Something like the Dark Knight? Villain and Superhero outdoing each other till the end while the city suffers? That may actually work for this title since the first movie was pretty dark in the first place.
  • Hunter Stephenson
    @ Nawid

    This was always envisioned by the director as a trilogy.

    I agree with your superlative, and I'd add that it's one of the most beautiful superhero movies ever made thanks to Eduardo Serra, the director of photography. The film's stylized homage to comic book panels and colors is brilliant and often overlooked.
  • I loved Unbreakable and would really like to see Shyamalan complete the trilogy.
  • I want
  • i think that it can happen and should happen because the first one was fantastic and a sequel should have been a lock 4 to 5 years ago. i say with everything happening right now it would do alot better at the box office than the original unbreakable.

    i hope he decides to do it because thats possibly the only thing that can make him come back after his last few movies.
  • I.E. Cooper
    The problem is, if he takes this as a Superhero film all of his directorial style will be lost, period. Shyamalan works with close, intimate settings with few major or minor characters, even extras. I was excited for the Happening because he had to venture out into the big wide world, but I heard that sucked. But he can't do this with Unbreakable, he can't widen the lens and bring in the outside world too much because it wasn't there in the first film. The first was really sort of experimental, and anything made now would be way more developed and "Hollywood"-like.

    I can see why he's hesitant. It also has a lot of potential for failure...since all his movies since have gotten progressively worse.
  • Domino
    This is the ONLY Shyamalan film I would spend money on at this point.
  • spikeshinizle
    I'd love to see an Unbreakable, I'm a huge Shyamalan fan (or was....didn't much care for Lady in the Water and The Happening) and would love to see him make a "come back".

    Shyamalan has received a lot of crap from film fans as of late and I think that's because we all know he can do so much better than his latest efforts. Unbreakable is a testament to this statement and a LOT of people seem to like it, it's enjoyed a really long life on DVD and is studied in many film schools around the world.

    With Shyamalan working on an Avatar: The Last Airbender trilogy, it's possible he may be able to learn and adapt to creating films which require a lot of action and extras, as apposed to his usual 'smaller' films.
    After all, Unbreakable came out before we got bombarded with shitty comic-book movies and for all the praise that Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise gets (and rightfully so), Unbreakable was one of the first films to tackle the comic book world in a realistic way.
  • Dimitar
    It's probably one of my favourite films, but I have always seen it as more of a drama/thriller than a superhero flick. It's harder to make a sequel in these genres and keep the dinamic between the characters(that made the first movie great) going without getting it getting just a little bit corny. Anyway, I would still love to see it.
  • Superman
    I love the first movie, it really made one of my summers years ago. I just got lost in its sheer brilliance. Really this came out before 9/11? Some would have you believe it was the dark knight that was the first to create the terrorist theme in a comic book movie, but I dare say unbreakable did it first, even though it's not based on a comic book... who cares. In case you didn't guess already, I want a sequel. It should have been made 4 or 5 years ago, but hey, we got indy 4 a billion years later. Anything goes nowadays.
  • Jamie
    Such a great film. Love love love this film.

    I say pitch it as a TV series. Shyamalan, you still got the juice to get a TV project greenlighted in three seconds.

    Who knows? Maybe TV will be a better canvas for you than you imagined.
  • Not Billy Mitchell
    I want this....but I doubt it ever happens
  • Dr. Malo
    hell yeah, Unbreakable it's the best Shyamalan movie and a great revition of the superhero mythos. A great movie and i really can see a sequel.
  • Matt
    It would work great! So what if it's been 8 years, we could see how Dunn keeps his hero personna under the radar and just where Mr. Glass ended up (presuming he was tried and found guilty). Heck, don't even break Mr. Glass out of prison/nuthouse, give him some correspondance with someone trying to break Dunn.
  • George
    One of the greatest "superhero" movies ever. I would love a sequel.
  • Goobity
    IMO, Unbreakable was the last truly great film M.Night did. Since then, well...I've not been too thrilled with 'em.
    I say go for it, Shyamalan!

    @ Hunter: I agree about the color palette, I didn't catch the shifting from pastels to primaries until the behind the scenes doc pointed it out.
  • Dangerous Dave
    Unbreakable is seriously one of my favorite films. The only question I'd have about a sequel possibility is would Shyamalan be up to the task of directing it? The way I see it, it'd be hit or miss.
  • It seems a little late to make a sequel to this and expect it to be successful. The first film was had kinda mixed reviews. Who knows though, "Aliens" came out 7 years after the original and kicked ass. Mind you it was a different director.
  • i would love a sequel! i love unbreakable, still his best movie.
  • Kelly Lynch
    for the love of God - YES! Make it M. Night!
  • Gart, Bo
    I don't care what he has made recently. Unbreakable was phenominal. I would love to see him continue the story.
  • gocitizen
    Unbreakable is a great, great film. Please, just leave it alone.

    If he were to make it , it strikes me as a career move as opposed to an artistic move. MNS just needs to step back and direct someone elses script. He's a talented director, but people just need to see him in that different light before he starts thinking about projects again.

    A sequel, especially a poorly received sequel to Unbreakable, would be the straw that breaks it for Shyamalan.
  • Nagroc
    Unbreakable was amazing.. more than that. I'm glad this is even being considered. With the Watchman coming out relatively soon, this pseudo-comic book approach [if it borrows from the original Ubreakable] will fill in the gaps that most people expect from the cape-wearing, damsel in distress rescuing, big studio production with green screens and CGI.. You don't need big special effects to look genuine.. Bruce Willis is a great actor, granted, he might be a little type casted.. He's still amazing at being stoic.
  • Mag
    They CALLED ME ...Mr. Glass
  • Justin
    Oh please oh please oh please...
  • Ender
    I would definitely pay money to see it in a theater (not just on DVD)!
  • peter c.
    Wow unbreakable was a horrible movie. Shame on you all. And this from a film major, so I tend to be able to enjoy a lot of flicks.
  • Durrr
    Anyone else notice at the end of Unbreakable when Bruce Willis is talking to Samuel L. Jackson's mother that SLJ is in a wheel chair talking to some people in front of a Thor comic book and a SHIELD comic book? Weird.
  • peter c. >>

    with all your film major-y knowledge, would you care to enlighten us on your position? you're not the only film kid here now ;)

    gocitizen >>

    i'm inclined to agree with you, but this, in a sense, is different because it was intended to be a trilogy. unbreakable isn't merely a "bankable" option, but a story that was meant to continue.
  • gocitizen
    ..and Star Wars was intended to be 6 films.

    If Shyamalan wrote two other scripts along with Unbreakable, the "intent" would actually mean something, but I don't think that is the case. Every writer has notes that flesh out some backstory or continuing story, but that doesn't mean there is a fully thought out story arc that can span three films.

    There are cases like Pirates of the Carribbean where they tailored the second two films to work wiith what happened in the Curse of the Black Pearl, but it's pretty well known that it was all story created after the success of that original film.

    I'm a huge fan of Unbreakable and I can honestly say that any further story would ruin the "magic" of that film. Let it live out in your imagination. I think, in this case, it's better that way.
  • I definitely want to see Unbreakable 2!
  • danno
    He has to do SOMETHING to amend for that last effort. Sniff.
  • Mudassir Chapra
    Until last week, Unbreakable was my favorite super-hero movie(saw Iron Man last week and Dark Knight yesterday). I think there's a lot of room for a sequel. But given Shyamalan's recent track record, both financially and critically, I doubt anyone would touch it from a mile away.
  • I . W A N T . T H I S . N O W !
  • Unbreakable is a GREAT film, but I think its to late in the game as Bruce Willis would appear so much older that he was in the original.
    I listed Unbreakable as MY number 3 greatest superhero film on my site! NO DOUBT its really good!
  • beast
    meh whatev...
  • does it matter
    this could reprise him. unbreakable was fucking awesome, especially the finale.
  • R_McCall
    Unbreakable wasn't bad, some very impressive stuff in that film (and some chunky bits too). I'd be happy to see an Unbreakable 2 but is Shyamabang a total whore now with no talent?
  • The Gajonka
    he should do it. forget jackson, he can be replaced. willis is the one here. this is must for this world. it would make the world a better place. lots of emotion in this film. we need to talk villains.... have willis retire after being a local, national hero. years pass. then we have a nasty villain emerge, who is successful at what he does, and more powerful, circa general zod, than any human. perhaps a government test gone wrong, clone of a man and a shark, like benchleys white shark. this would be great because willis is the best hero to rally behind. he, more than anyone else in film, has an edge in that you want him to be the one to save the bloody day. let's roll with this one. let's make a run.

    "THERE'S NO GOIN BACK..."
  • Albert Brodsky
    @ The Gajonka...

    That was all a joke, right?
  • Darrell
    "Unbreakable 2" - YES!
    As long as Shyamalan evaluates his 'lessons learned' from some of his less-popular movies and does not let the marketing department mislead the public or misrepresent his directorial style then it should be fine.
    If it's going to make the studio cash then they will do it.
  • Mikey M
    Shamalan will be directing TV in a few years if he stays on his ego path.
  • ihartsf
    If it punched up the action, I'd be especially interested. Given the last couple movies, returning to some reasonably popular characters isn't a bad idea.
  • Jeff W.
    I really, really like The Sixth Sense. It's well-made, well-written, and has the best twist ending ever, ever, ever, bar none.

    And it's a fluke. Somehow he had that idea and got it greenlighted and the results were sublime. Then it made half a billion and he got a big head and everything he's done since has been awful, progressively worse.

    Unbreakable is slow, pretentious, juvenile, and nonsensical. Whenever anyone defends it, I only have to respond with a single sentence:

    "He FORGOT he's a superhero."

    That generally shuts them down pretty fast. Your favorite Shyamalan? Really? But it sucks from the moment you read that opening title about how many people collect comic books, out there. ("Oh, brother," I muttered to the people I saw the movie with.) Sure, it's not as aggressively, belligerently, hopelessly stupid and moronic as Signs (and the acting is somewhat better), but Unbreakable is so obviously the half-baked idea in a drawer that he couldn't sell to anyone until after The Sixth Sense.
  • I love when people don't like a film, they don't think anyone else should.

    Unbreakable rules, get over it.
  • Desperate times call for desperate measure's...best films of his work:

    1. The Sixth Sense
    2. Unbreakable
    3. Signs
    4. The Happening (sort of)
  • M
    I am not a fan of the comic book movie genre, but I sat down and re-watched Unbreakable today. I desperately want to see a sequel to this film, because I feel that there is so much potential in the plot that had been established. This was an a-typical film with no gross exaggerations of human ability, but concepts that people could identify with. I really hope he gets the chance to adapt his original plans of this film.
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