It’s been fifteen years since M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable hit theatres, and though the prospect of seeing an actual sequel this far out seems slim, the director is still hopeful it could happen, thanks in no small part to the rise of superhero and comic book-inspired entertainment on film and television.
Shyamalan recently entered the TV game with his new Fox series, Wayward Pines. During an interview about the show with IGN, he opened up about the long-rumored follow-up to his subversive superhero origin tale and whether or not he’d be open to turning to television to make it happen:
“As a way to continue the story, yes. That would [interest me]. I really love where we are. Could you do a six-episode Unbreakable series on Netflix or HBO? Yeah! That’s cool.”
The director explained that a series may not even be the only way to conclude the story and revealed that he’d be interested in spreading the rest of it across several forms of media:
“I even had an idea of doing a story that goes in one form, and a second part that’s in another form, and a third one’s in a different form. You never do the same form. It would be like, movie, then, let’s say, cable, to TV, whatever, and then a play; it goes straight online, and it finishes like that. It’s in four different forms, and it never goes back to the old one. It could be kind of cool.”
Unbreakable – which starred Bruce Willis as a raincoat-clad everyman who slowly discovers that he has superhuman strength and invulnerability – is a film that’s completely missing a third act; the movie comes to a sudden end just as Willis discovers his destiny and the truth about his would-be-nemesis, played by Samuel L. Jackson. It’s a gut-punch of an ending that leaves much to be desired, so the hunger for a sequel is understandable. Unbreakable‘s poor box office take is likely what’s kept it from happening, but in a world filled with film reboot/sequels on television, anything is possible.
Tell us, would you be interested in an Unbreakable sequel series on Netflix or HBO? Let us know in the comments below.