Movies

M. Night Shyamalan Has Finished The 'Unbreakable' Sequel Outline

Unbreakable sequel
By Jack Giroux

Ten years ago, an Unbreakable sequel likely didn't sound too realistic to fans of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. Every once in a while, Shyamalan would mention the idea. But it's only recently, after the huge success of Split, that another movie with David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) sounded plausible. Now, the sequel is picking up more momentum, as Shyamalan has completed an 11-page outline for the film.

Below, get an update on the Unbreakable sequel. (Warning: spoilers for Split ahead.)

Shyamalan's Split ends by bringing David back after Kevin (James McAvoy) goes on the run. The writer-director actually hinted at Split's origins as an Unbreakable sequel over six years ago:

I cannibalized the idea for the sequel to Unbreakable for one of the Night Chronicles. It was such a cool idea for a villain, and it was actually originally in the script for Unbreakable, and it was too much... There were too many villains, so I pulled this villain out and was like, 'I'll make this the second flick.'...I fleshed it out more and more, and thought, 'This could be a standalone movie. I'll just say it: the third Night Chronicles movie is what would have been the sequel [to Unbreakable].

The Night Chronicles were an intended trilogy of films by Shyamalan. 2010's Devil was the first installment, but the next two projects never got off the ground and the entire idea seems to have withered away. Split isn't part of the Night Chronicles, obviously, but it seems to have stemmed from the same original concept that Shyamalan mentions above. The director previously said he has an outline for the sequel he needs to finish before he starts writing the next chapter in David Dunn and Kevin's story.

The director tweeted yesterday he's completed that outline, so now he can get going on writing the Unbreakable sequel.

Two weeks ago Shyamalan said he plans on making the Unbreakable sequel next. "It's the final movie of these two movies put together," he explained. He'll complete both David and Kevin's arcs. Split and Unbreakable ended with them accepting who they think they are, but where they'll go next is unknown. It'll be interesting to see what David and his wife and son have been up to the past ten years or so, and how Elijah Price has changed. Shyamalan hasn't shared too many details about what to expect from David and Kevin's highly-anticipated confrontation, but he's said before about the Unbreakable sequel that "it should never feel like a comic book movie."

Split is now in theaters.

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