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It was recently confirmed that the tenth movie in the Saw franchise was on the way when it was given an official release date for the Halloween season of 2023. We rarely see movie franchises that reach ten entries and it would be understandable if even fans of Saw were starting to get franchise fatigue. But the man who started it all, writer/director James Wan, is just in awe that his little independent horror project has gone so far.
James Wan, who wrote and directed the original Saw, and has remained as an executive producer on the franchise ever since, took to Instagram when the Saw X release was announced and talked about the humble beginnings of the series, with a first movie that was shot quickly and cheaply. Certainly he had no idea it would go on to spawn an entire franchise.
James Wan could not have had the first clue what that first Saw movie would mean. Not only would it launch a new horror franchise, one of the most successful in years, but it would launch him into the stratosphere of directing. While Wan always returns to horror now and then, he’s also directed Fast & Furious movies and Aquaman movies all because of the success of that little indie horror flick that takes place mostly in a dirty basement.
The Saw franchise was a Halloween mainstay for several years with new entries being released every single fall. There was a new Saw every year from the original in 2004 until 2010. Each one provided fans with new creative traps and new bloody, violent deaths. What potentially set Saw apart from other horror franchises, however, was that rather than simply contriving a story to justify killing a new group of people, Saw has a coherent narrative that runs through the franchise. There’s a wild story behind the people in Saw setting the traps that requires you to have seen all the other movies in order to make sense of it all. Although even then it barely makes sense.
The one exception being the last movie in the series. Spiral, which, while it’s technically the ninth Saw movie, is more of a spinoff, focusing on new characters that uses the violent elements from the franchise, but doesn’t continue the story of Jigsaw, the name associated with the main villain of the series.
It was first rumored in early 2021, before Spiral was even released, that a tenth Saw was in development and now that has been confirmed. Kevin Greutert who directed Saw VI and Saw 3D will helm the new entry. What’s unclear at this point is if the new film will pick up where Spiral left off, as that movie did leave a cliffhanger ending, or if we’ll get something that’s more directly in line with the rest of the franchise offerings.