(Acknowledging the existence of a spoiler can often act as a spoiler itself, so let’s just say that the following story will contain spoilers for every single M. Night Shyamalan movie ever made. If you have not seen every single M. Night Shyamalan movie ever made and do not want to be spoiled, back out now.)
Thanks to the positive reception of his multiple personality thriller Split, public opinion of M. Night Shyamalan is beginning to swing in a good direction for the first time in many years. Naturally, then, Shyamalan has decided to take advantage of this newfound goodwill by returning to the 2000 Bruce Willis-starring superhero film Unbreakable, which pretty much everyone considers to be the best movie of his filmmaking career. According to an interview with Uproxx, Shyamalan says he fully intends for his next project to be an Unbreakable sequel. He adds that he’s “still close to Bruce and everybody,” so he’s hoping “that becomes a reality very soon.”
Goodwill isn’t the only reason he’s returning to Unbreakable, though. As everyone who has seen Split (or read about its ending) knows, the film features a cameo from Bruce Willis’ Unbreakable character in its final scene, establishing that the two films are part of the same universe. Shyamalan says the new Unbreakable sequel he wants to make will tie the original and Split together, with “all the characters” from both appearing in some way.
It doesn’t sound like a studio is involved or anything like that just yet, but considering that Shyamalan has continued making movies despite the vitriolic reaction to some of his missteps, he can probably get this done if he really wants to.