In 2017, fans of director M. Night Shyamalan experienced a huge and unexpected surprise. After years of fans raging against his output, from the B-level horror movie The Happening to the critically-lambasted big screen adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, it seemed the once-promising director was watching his career spiral and die. However, the production company that masterminded low-budget horror movies like Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister came to the rescue and helped Shyamalan get his mojo back with the 2015 horror movie The Visit and the 2017 movie Split.
It was Split that proved to fans that the Shyamalan they fell in love with in the days of Sixth Sense and Unbreakable was back. The reason was simple, as well. While no one knew until the end of the film, Split exists in the world of Unbreakable, something proven when Bruce Willis showed up in the final scene of the movie as David Dunn, the everyman superhero from the earlier Shyamalan movie. Now, a third movie in the series, Glass, is coming out and it will bring the worlds of Unbreakable and Split together. Here is a look at everything we know about Glass as well as some rumors that we hope might come true.
15 FACT: HE PLANNED THIS TRILOGY SINCE UNBREAKABLE HIT DVD
Unbreakable was M. Night Shyamalan's second mainstream movie and his fourth overall, immediately following Sixth Sense. Since Sixth Sense helped launch Shyamalan's star in Hollywood, he received some freedom with Unbreakable and made a superhero movie about an average guy, creating one of the most original superhero origin stories ever filmed.
While Unbreakable came out in 2000, and there were 17 years between the first and second movie in this series, Shyamalan said during his press tour for Split that he ultimately planned the trilogy from the moment that he saw the massive DVD sales for Unbreakable. The director said that by adding David Dunn to the end of Split, creating the shared universe was his way to help lead into the trilogy he foresaw so many years ago.
14 RUMOR: THE MOVIE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS SPLIT
According to a lot of the rumors concerning Glass, the movie should pick up right after the events of Split concluded. Fans might remember that the villain of Split, Kevin Crumb, killed his psychiatrist after she learned he took three teenage girls captive. The final girl, Casey Cook, ended up battling Kevin and went on the run. By the end, Casey survived and Kevin escaped capture.
The movie showed Kevin trying to regain his health after taking a beating in the final battle, and then a final scene showed David Dunn from Unbreakable watching the news broadcast in a diner. This twist was the major reveal that set up Glass, and most people expect the movie to pick up with Dunn actively looking for Kevin following this scene. However, there is also a chance that time will pass because there is no way Kevin makes it easy to find him after the events of Split.
13 FACT: GLASS WILL TAKE PLACE IN PHILADELPHIA
This revelation should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the career of M. Night Shyamalan. The director shot Glass in Philadelphia, and as with almost all his movies, the story will also take place in what Shyamalan calls "the best city in the world." Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Split all took place in Philadelphia, and Night loves to add in scenic shots of the city's landmarks in his films as well.
As a matter of fact, before he was a successful Hollywood director, Shyamalan also shot his first two movies -- Praying with Anger and Wide Awake -- in Philadelphia as well. Shyamalan said at an event in 2017 where actor Bruce Willis received the Lumiere Award that he remains proud to shoot his movies in the city.
12 RUMOR: DAVID DUNN IS NO LONGER WITH HIS WIFE
There has been very little information about the actual plot of Glass outside of the fact that David Dunn will be facing off with Kevin Crumb while Mr. Glass is lurking somewhere in the movie. However, there the studio released a cast list with many of the characters either confirmed, hinted at, or in this one case -- wholly omitted.
In Unbreakable, what made David Dunn so impressive as a character is that he was an everyman. After David received his powers after surviving a train crash, he tries to reconcile with his wife Audrey (Robin Wright), after their marriage had hit a rough patch. In the casting news for Glass, there is no sign at all of Wright, making it sound like his marriage did not last despite all his efforts. Unless there was some other tragedy.
11 FACT: SARAH PAULSON IS IN THIS MOVIE
While Robin Wright is not in the cast for Glass, there is another big-name female joining the film. Sarah Paulson has a lot of experience in genre storytelling. She appeared in the '90s horror series American Gothic and the more recent horror anthology American Horror Story, appearing in all seven seasons for that series.
When it comes to who Paulson is portraying in Glass, that one still remains a mystery. She is one of the only big Hollywood presences not to have a character name or description listed. Paulson could be a new victim for Kevin to hunt, maybe a new love interest for David Dunn, or even someone who deals with Mr. Glass as a new hero or villain. This casting news is one secret that Shyamalan has kept well-guarded.
10 RUMOR: KEVIN CRUMB WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN UNBREAKABLE
While M. Night Shyamalan had decided he wanted to make a trilogy based in the world of David Dunn, there is a rumor that he almost ruined that chance when he made Unbreakable. Those rumors indicate that Kevin Crumb -- the split-personality serial killer from Split -- was supposed to appear in Unbreakable initially.
That would have changed the entire dynamic of Unbreakable, and if it is true, it is a good thing that Shyamalan changed his mind. For one thing, the appeal of Unbreakable is that Dunn is an average man who has to convince himself that he is a hero. That is the story, and adding a psychotic supernatural killer like Crumb would have overshadowed the brilliance of the minimalist superhero origin story.
9 FACT: BLUMHOUSE IS BEHIND THE MOVIE
As mentioned earlier, Blumhouse Productions produced both Split and The Visit and will also be the studio behind Glass. This is a production studio that made its name by creating low-budget horror movies that turned around and made a fortune. The film that started it all was Paranormal Activity, which they made for $15,000 and made well over $193 million!
With later movies, Blumhouse proved that it could make scary, and successful, horror movies on a low budget and make a profit, giving the studio a lot of freedom in Hollywood. Despite M. Night Shyamalan suffering through a series of critical flops, Blumhouse had faith in him, and by reining him into their system, they helped Night get his career back on track, giving him (and us) hope to continue the revival with Glass.
8 RUMOR: DAVID DUNN HAS BEEN HUNTING VILLAINS
Unbreakable came out in 2000, which was 18 years ago. By the time Glass hits theaters in January 2019, it will be one year short of two decades since fans fell in love with Shyamalan's superhero movie. That also means that Bruce Willis has aged almost 20 years since that last film. The question fans have is what has David Dunn been up to over the previous two decades.
Unbreakable is a superhero origin story, and Dunn discovers he is a hero who is capable of saving people's lives in that earlier movie. When Split came to an end, Dunn watched the TV news and saw that Kevin Crumb had escaped after almost killing Casey. He makes it clear he is coming for Kevin, making it sound like he has spent the last 20 years doing the same thing -- hunting down and stopping the bad guys.
7 FACT: DAVID DUNN IS HUNTING DOWN CRUMB
David Dunn watched the TV news at the end of Split and saw that Kevin Crumb had escaped justice after committing murder. He hears a woman say that Crumb -- known by this time as The Horde -- sounds similar to another bad guy from "15 years ago." That is when Dunn noted that man's name was Mr. Glass. From the look of it, Dunn is ready to hit the streets to find the new villain.
The synopsis for Glass revealed the names of the cast members and read that David Dunn pursues Kevin Crumb in "a series of escalating encounters." It is clear that the movie will rely on Dunn to kick off the battles, and that Crumb will go from the hunter in Split to the hunted in Glass.
6 RUMOR: DAVID DUNN'S SON IS BACK FROM UNBREAKABLE
When it comes to Unbreakable, David Dunn was having problems with his marriage, but his primary focus in the film was the relationship with his son Joseph. The boy had a love of superheroes, and David found it hard at times to relate to him; ironic, given his abilities. Of course, when Dunn realized he had superhuman powers and strength, it opened up their relationship, and he found pride when the boy realized that his father was the superhero that was saving people in the real world.
Spencer Treat Clark portrayed Joseph in Unbreakable, and the then 13-year-old child is now a 30-year-old man. Clark has continued working as an adult actor and has signed on to return to Glass. While most assume that Clark will play the now adult Joseph, there is nothing in the synopsis to explain his presence or role in the new film. Yet.
5 FACT: CASEY COOK IS BACK FROM SPLIT
Another person returning to the franchise is Anna Taylor-Joy, the Final Girl from Split, Casey Cooke. In Split, Kevin kidnapped Casey and two of her friends at a store and kept them captive in a small room, with no idea where they were. While Kevin killed both of her friends, as well as his psychiatrist, Casey survived the ordeal and escaped.
While Casey lived, the ordeal added on to another tragic event in her life, a memory of her uncle molesting her as a child. There is no way her life can ever be the same after the ordeal. The fact that Kevin is still alive and on the run makes her return in Glass ominous for anyone who understands what usually happens to survivors who return for horror movie sequels.
4 RUMOR: CRUMB'S SPLIT PERSONALITIES WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE
M. Night Shyamalan is fantastic at keeping reveals in his movies as secrets. His penchant for shock and surprise twist endings became a punchline for his critics and made it hard to go into one of his films without expecting some convoluted twist. However, when it comes to the arrival of David Dunn in Split, it was his best twist since Unbreakable showed that Mr. Glass was the villain.
With that said, Shyamalan can't control all his actors, and James McAvoy posted a photo of him posing as one of Kevin's many personalities in a social media post. The picture showed McAvoy with long black hair, which he called a "hair transplant" and it looks like fans who loved seeing McAvoy race from one character to the next will get more of that in Glass.
3 FACT: ALL 3 MAIN CHARACTERS ARE BACK
Of course, the plot of Glass guarantees that David Dunn from Unbreakable will face off with Kevin Crumb from Split. However, Mr. Glass is also joining the two of them in the movie, bringing the three best characters from the two films together for an explosive climax.
That means that Bruce Willis will rejoin M. Night Shyamalan for the third time, following Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, as the superhero in the story. James McAvoy will be back for his second turn as The Horde, the main villain of the movie. However, the best news is that Samuel L. Jackson is returning to the superhero franchise he excelled in before ever putting on an eyepatch, bringing Elijah Price -- Mr. Glass -- back to the big screen.
2 RUMOR: MR. GLASS IS ORCHESTRATING EVERYTHING (AGAIN)
While everyone now knows that Mr. Glass is coming back for the new movie, the question of how he fits into the story is something that fans have tried to piece together. The movie is named after him and the synopsis hints that his role is the reason for the upcoming battle. Fans remember that everything David Dunn went through in Unbreakable was because Mr. Glass wanted to find his polar opposite -- someone who was unbreakable while he was seemingly made of glass.
Mr. Glass manipulated everything to create a superhero for his villain to battle. The synopsis for Glass states Mr. Glass is "orchestrating" things. Since he is in an asylum for the criminally insane, there appears to be a chance he is once again manipulating things, this time to turn The Horde into a new supervillain to battle the hero he created.
1 FACT: GLASS IS A "DIFFERENT KIND" OF SUPERHERO MOVIE
When Quentin Tarantino listed Unbreakable as one of his favorite movies released since he became a director himself, he made an interesting comment. Tarantino believes that Unbreakable could have found better success during its theatrical release if it asked what would happen if Superman was on Earth and didn't know he was Superman.
This is what made Unbreakable so beloved, especially by comic book fans. It was a non-traditional superhero origin story, one that focused on subtle character acting (ironic for a story about a man who was literally and titularly unbreakable), and the sequel will keep that in mind. According to producer Jason Blum, the movie is not like a Marvel movie but is instead a "very different" superhero movie, just like the film that came before it. Glass arrives in theaters on Jan. 18, 2019.