M. Night Shyamalan Wants His Next Movie, Glass, To Be Unique

Caution: Spoilers for the movie Split are ahead.

After the shocking twist at the end of his last movie, Split, where the director revealed that his first film, Unbreakable, was connected with his previously mentioned film. The discovery caught viewers completely off guard, as the two films, at first glance, appear to have nothing in common. Now, according to M. Night Shyamalan, the third film in his cinematic universe, Glass, will be a standalone movie. As in it won’t necessarily be a sequel to Unbreakable or Split. He recently discussed his plans for his upcoming film on a podcast, HappySadConfused:

All I can say is this: If Unbreakable was about a guy who is the only person who survives a train wreck, everyone dies and he doesn’t have a scratch on him. How is that possible? That’s a high concept, really cool story. And then this one is three girls get abducted by a person that has this disorder that he believes he’s many people, and all of the different personalities are saying there’s another personality coming to get them, it’s called The Beast. That in and of itself is a really cool thing. This third movie needs to have its own idea. The high concept of that final movie can’t be, ‘It’s the final Unbreakable.’ There has to be something about that that makes it its own movie… That’s when I’ll be happiest, is when it’s its own movie. In a way it could be watched by itself.

Shyamalan has obviously planned his next couple movies carefully. He wants to make a movie that can be classified as its own movie. After that, he’ll worry about connecting all the films (Unbreakable, Split, Glass) together to make one epic crossover. Until then, fans can find comfort in the knowledge that Shyamalan is working hard to ensure that Glass is its own, unique film while maintaining all of the core characters (such as Mr. Glass, David Dunn, and the multiple personalities of Kevin “Wendall” Crumb).

Finished the 2nd draft of #Glass on Friday. Took 5 weeks. Started the 3rd pass today… gave myself a 3 week deadline for this pass.

— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) May 28, 2017