Maybe it's not over for the Saw franchise after all, at least not if Billy the Puppet has to say anything about it.
On Monday, Lionsgate released a fun little statement (finally) addressing the ongoing Saw debacle, using the franchise's honorary mascot to do so.
“I’ve seen the rumors. They say it’s Game Over. You all should know me better than that. The game is never over," says the statement, exclusively shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
There you have it, folks. Saw will probably be back in the future. Admittedly, this statement doesn't do much to assuage fears about the fate of Saw XI but it seems like Lionsgate wanted to make it clear that they have no intentions of completely abandoning the billion-dollar grossing film series.
Saw X was the best-reviewed movie in the entire franchise, which started with the 2004 original from James Wan and Leigh Whannell. We've all been waiting for a long time to find out more about its planned sequel but after a delay and rumors of infighting behind the scenes, it seemed unlikely the movie was even happening.
Last week, THR released an article finally discussing what happened with the movie as one of Saw XI's screenwriters, Patrick Melton, revealed that "inter-squabbling" between the film's producers and Lionsgate had led to the movie's standstill.
Melton says the problems weren't creative at all, but stemmed from issues at a "managerial level."
According to him, the story would have been about John Kramer seeking revenge on healthcare execs due to how the system failed him and countless others. Saw previously addressed this topic in the sixth film.
Apart from the statement via "Billy," Lionsgate has also officially removed Saw XI from the calendar altogether. The upcoming September 26 release date is now home to The Strangers: Chapter 2 premiere. Chapter 2 is the second part of the studio's rebooted trilogy based on Bryan Bertino's popular 2008 home invasion film of the same name.
Despite poor critical and audience reception, The Strangers: Chapter 1 earned over $48 million at the box office (on an $8.5 million budget). While the first chapter was mostly a (poor) retread of the original film starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, chapters two and three are expected to diverge from the source and take us into a new story revolving around Madelaine Petsch's character and her fight against the masked trio of home invaders.
In addition to the official release date, Petsch also shared a few promotional videos for the film on her social media accounts.