Many people consider M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable to be the greatest comic book movie ever made that wasn’t actually based on a comic book. The film tells the story of a man named David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who slowly discovers that he’s impervious to harm.
Ultimately, he decides to accept his destiny and become a “superhero,” which in turn leads the man (Samuel L. Jackson) responsible for making him aware of his gift down a villainous path. For many years, the director had promised that he would one day get to work on a sequel, but nothing ever came to fruition…until now, that is.
Warning: if you haven’t seen Shyamalan’s current effort, Split, yet, major spoilers for the ending will follow from this point on. You’ve been warned…..
It turns out the journey towards that Unbreakable sequel actually begins in the director’s latest film. At the end of Split, it’s revealed that the story is set in the same universe, and David Dunn even makes a brief appearance. It’s strongly suggested that he’ll set out to do battle with James McAvoy’s Kevin Crumb, who has been taken over by “The Beast” personality.
During an interview with EW, Shyamalan confirmed that he will indeed follow up Split with Unbreakable 2, but that he still hasn’t mapped everything out just yet:
Night: I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go off in my room, a week after this film opens, to write the script. But I’m going to start writing.
Do you have an outline?
Night: Yeah, definitely. A really robust outline, which is pretty intricate. But now the standards for my outlines are higher. I need to know I’ve won already. I’m almost there but I’m not quite there.
This is no doubt terrific news for fans of Unbreakable, who’ve been waiting for updates on a sequel for years now. The prospect of seeing Dunn going up against “The Horde” is an exciting one indeed and while it might be some time before this project actually enters production, just knowing that Night is finally getting to work on it is enough to put a smile on our face.