Through 21 years and 10 Saw movies, nothing has been able to keep the Jigsaw killer down. After Saw X revitalized the franchise in 2023 with great reviews and $125.3 million worldwide, Saw XI was given greenlight to proceed with a September 2024 release date. That film was subsequently pushed back to September 26, 2025, but a new report suggests that the next sequel may not come out at all due to unknown issues at Lionsgate between the executives and the producers.
“We haven’t heard anything since May,” Patrick Melton told The Hollywood Reporter. Melton has been with the franchise since Saw IV in 2007, and he co-wrote the script for Saw XI with Marcus Dunstan. Despite turning in their draft almost a year ago, there’s been “zero progress” on the film since then.
“It’s stalled at a managerial level,” explained Melton. “It has nothing to do with the creative or anything else. There’s higher-level things at play… 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.”
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The original Saw debuted in 2004 as a low budget horror film that turned out to be extremely profitable. Since then, it’s gone on to become one of the best horror franchises of all time, and certainly one of the most lucrative. It’s been such a success story that even killing off John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the original Jigsaw killer, in Saw 3 didn’t slow down the momentum. Bell has reprised his role in some capacity in nine out of 10 Saw movies, and he had his largest on-screen time to date in Saw X, which took place before Kramer’s on-screen death. According to Melton, Bell would have also returned in Saw XI, which he acknowledges may never get made.
“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,” added Melton. “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.”