James Wan Reveals Plans for Scary, Psychologically Scarring Saw Reboot

2 weeks ago 17

Tobin Bell as John Kramer/Jigsaw staring at a person offscreen in Saw X

Published Jan 28, 2026, 1:00 PM EST

Britta DeVore is a Senior Author for Collider who has been known to dabble with Reality News as well.

Have you seen stories about 'Chucky,' 'Scream,' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 'The Boys,' 'Vanderpump Rules,' or any of 'The Real Housewives' franchises? That's probably a Britta DeVore-curated piece of art, and it sounds like you have great taste.

When she isn't sitting behind her laptop bringing readers her hot takes on upcoming projects or keeping the dream alive in the Senior News team, Britta can usually be found outside hiking or inside behind her drum set. She currently plays in two bands, Kid Midnight and Watergate, both based in Brooklyn. An obsessive traveler, Britta loves long road trips to the South West and has a soft spot in her heart for canyons, rivers, and forests.

She also has a tiny cat named Athena that she loves more than anything else in the world and is always happy for new brewery recs.

Over the last two decades, the Saw franchise has tried on many different looks. The brutal, sometimes grotesque horror film series has passed through the hands of multiple directors, writers, and stars, culminating in 10 installments. After hitting a rut that appeared to perhaps sink the Saw ship altogether, the franchise will soon pick itself up off the floor and shake the dust off in a new project set to come from the universe’s co-creator, James Wan. Andaccording to an interview the Insidious helmer recently gave to Letterboxd, this one isfor the OG fans.

Expressing his excitement to craft a Saw project for the first time since 2006’s Saw III, Wan explained that he has “the freshest outlook” in store for the dedicated fandom. “I feel I can come back to it with a new perspective whilst knowing that with this next movie I want to hark back to the spirit of the first movie,” he said. “One of the things I really want to do with this next Saw is to make it scary again. I want to make a scary Saw — not just gory, but psychologically scarring, like what Leigh [Whannell] and I did in the first movie.”

The initial film, 2004’s Saw, introduced audiences to a new kind of horror villain. Instead of lurking in the shadows and slashing, this one studied his victims and trapped them in intense and oftentimes impossible puzzles that put their lives on the line. Known as Jigsaw, the killer, whose government name is John Kramer (Tobin Bell), was never one to carry out his sadistic tactics on those who might morally deserve it, but instead wreaked havoc on folks who didn’t appreciate the wonders of life — and that sentiment is precisely what Wan is hoping to get back to with the new movie.

“Leigh and I both want to recapture the spirit of that first film and revisit Jigsaw’s philosophy, which is that he goes after people who don’t appreciate their lives. If you’re a scumbag, but you appreciate your life, he doesn’t see you as someone who’s wasting your life, so I want to go back to what we touched on in the first movie with regard to that.”

‘Saw 11’ Will Be Something Completely Different

While paying homage to the theme that launched the box-office juggernaut franchise, Wan saidhe also plans to give viewers something completely new and reinvent the story for the next generation.

“At the same time, I want to honor what people have come to love about the franchise, whilst trying to do something fresh and new that we haven’t seen before. This next movie would be the eleventh installment, and there’ve been lots of films in this world. We need to do something different in order to reach out to a new generation that didn’t grow up with it.”

Stay tuned to Collider for more about the eleventh installment of the Saw franchise.