I can’t even believe I’m saying this but… it’s game over for the Saw franchise, at least for now. It has been confirmed that the upcoming Saw XI has officially been stalled and, at this point, will not be released in the fall as originally scheduled.
That said, this isn’t a creative issue. “We haven’t heard anything since May,” Saw XI screenwriter Patrick Melton told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s stalled at a managerial level. It has nothing to do with the creative or anything else. There’s higher-level things at play.”
According to the publication, Melton and his writing partner Marcus Dunstan submitted a draft of the script in spring 2024, which is coming up on a year ago. Melton added: “The reason it’s held up is just, there’s inter-squabbling between producers and Lionsgate. They just can’t quite get on the same page.”
Frequent franchise director Kevin Gruetert was attached to the project back in December 2023, when it was given a September 2024 release date. But fans were gutted when the film was ultimately delayed for an entire year, with a new September 2025 release date in place. Franchise diehards hoped it was for the greater good of the story, especially after the box office success that was Saw X. The 10th installment had really brought the franchise back to life in numbers terms, garnering over $120 million globally during its theatrical run, which naturally had execs itching to make Saw XI.
What’s worse is the 11th installment was set to deal with a timely topic. Though plot details have not been made public for Saw XI, Melton compared the plot of the film to that of Saw VI, which was written by Melton and Dunstan and directed by Gruetert. In it, lead John Kramer, aka Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), takes revenge on a group of health insurance executives.
“Saw XI may or may not be made, but we have a very timely story in it, and I hope it gets made just because of that,” Melton told THR.
“It taps into the same themes of Saw VI, where you’re a citizen, you feel angry and frustrated with something, you feel like you can’t do anything, and John Kramer’s going to do it.” It would be quite interesting to see the Saw franchise go down this road again and how they would do it differently, considering the state of the world at the moment — but sadly, it seems we may never know.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
