'Glass' Trailer: M. Night Shyamalan Brings 'Unbreakable' And 'Split' Together

Unbreakable fans have been hoping for a sequel for years, but almost no one expected it to happen like this. At the end of Split, M. Night Shyamalan revealed that the multiple-personality thriller was set in the same universe as his superhero deconstruction film. Now, Unbreakable and Split join together for Glass, a movie that looks to turn the superhero film as we know it upside down. Watch the latest Glass trailer below. 

I've remained a ride-or-die M. Night Shyamalan fan even while most of the film-going world turned its back on him. So I take some pleasure in knowing the filmmaker has successfully rehabilitated his career, and is now about to unleash one of his most anticipated films. After some misfires, the Sixth Sense director bounced back first with The Visit and then Split. Now, the filmmaker hopes to keep his streak going with Glass.

In Glass, David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the hero of Unbreakable, finds himself in the midst of a story involving both Elijah Price, aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), the antagonist of Split. But this is no simple follow-up film. Shyamalan appears to be going for something different here. Dunn isn't the hero we saw him as at the end of Unbreakable. Instead, he's confined to an asylum along with Elijah and Kevin, under the care of a psychiatrist (Sarah Paulson) who specializes in treating people who believe they're superheroes. Are David's powers all in his head? Or is there something more nefarious going on here?

I continue to be intrigued by this project. Shyamalan could've made a more simple sequel to either Unbreakable or Split, but he's attempting something far more ambitious here. This looks like the cure for the common superhero movie, and a much-needed shot-in-the-arm for the genre as a whole. (Minor complaint: I don't care for David's nickname The Overseer – couldn't they think of something better?).

In addition to the cast mentioned above, Anya Taylor-Joy is also back, reprising her role from Split as Casey Cooke; Spencer Treat Clark, once again playing Willis' son from Unbreakable; and Charlayne Woodard, reprising her role as Jackson's mother.

Glass opens January 18, 2019.

M. Night Shyamalan brings together the narratives of two of his standout originals—2000's Unbreakable, from Touchstone, and 2016's Split, from Universal—in one explosive, all-new comic-book thriller: Glass. From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. 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.