As the follow-up to M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout hit The Sixth Sense, 2000’s Unbreakable cemented the director’s reputation as the master of the twist ending but in many ways it was ahead of its time. Unbreakable served as an intricate deconstruction of the super hero genre and comic book fandom years before they came to dominate the center stage of pop culture. It starred Bruce Willis as an everyman who happens to survive a terrible accident who is stalked by a physically fragile man played by Samuel L. Jackson who has become obsessed with proving the existence of a person as invincible as he is frail. Unbreakable holds up, but despite being more relevant than ever, it is a film that has never quite gained the same notoriety as Shyamalan’s other works.
All of that changed with the release of Shyamalan’s recent film Split which (SPOILER ALERT) is revealed to tie in with Unbreakable! The revelation sparked renewed interest in the earlier film and wild speculation about the possibility of a true Unbreakable sequel. On April 26th the director took to Twitter to finally weigh in once and for all.
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?”
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
My new film is the sequel to #Unbreakable AND #Split. It was always my dream to have both films collide in this third film.
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
The iconic Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
The incomparable @SamuelLJackson will return as Elijah Price/Mr. Glass
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
The virtuoso #JamesMcAvoy returns as Kevin Wendell Crumb, Patricia, Dennis, Hedwig, Barry, Jade, Orwell, The Beast, Heinrich, Norma, Pol-
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
And the prodigy, @AnyaTaylorJoy will return as Casey Cooke
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
I’m reteaming with my partners @jason_blum and @Universalpics for this crazy comic book thriller.
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
And the film is called GLASS…
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 26, 2017
So there it is: M. Night Shyamalan’s creations all uniting in their own shared comic book universe! It will be interesting to see Unbreakable’s superhero deconstruction story applied to the latest superhero fad of shared universes. But with Shyamalan apparently bringing a seventeen years-long plan to fruition the results are sure to be memorable.
