What Unbreakable 3 Will Be About, According To M. Night Shyamalan

Spoiler Warning! I have to assume that if you clicked into this story, you understand WHY we would be talking about Unbreakable 3. The floodgate has just been opened by director M. Night Shyamalan, who has started sharing MAJOR details about his plans for the Unbreakable universe. So, if you do NOT understand why we are talking about Unbreakable 3, you MIGHT want to stop reading. Seriously. And go see Split.

OK, as you know, M. Night Shyamalan's Split exists in the Unbreakable universe. Not only is it the unofficial Unbreakable sequel that we have been waiting 15 years for, it's also a set up for Unbreakable 3, which will center around the three dominant figures of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), Kevin/The Beast (James McAvoy) and Mister Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). Audiences and film writers have been sitting on this news since last year, and now that the movie is out and the ending of Split is making the rounds, Shyamalan sat down with MTV for a SPOILER-FILLED conversation where he confirmed that Unbreakable 3 is happening, it will star Willis, McAvoy and Jackson, and it will be approached by the director in this way:

All I can say is this. If Unbreakable was... take the comic book thing away. If the movie is about a guy who's the only person who survives a train wreck, everyone else dies and he's the only person who survives and he doesn't have a scratch on him. How is that possible? That's our high concept. A really cool story. And then this one, it's 'Three girls get abducted by a person that has this disorder. He believes he's many people. And all of the many different personalities are saying that there's another personality coming to get them. It's called The Beast.' That's a really cool concept. This third movie needs to have its own idea. The high concept of that final movie can't be, 'It's the final Unbreakable.' There has to be something about it that makes it its own movie. These two [Split and Unbreakable] are their own movies. That's when I'll be happiest. When [the last one] is its own movie. In a way, I can say that it just can be watched by itself.

M. Night Shyamalan went on to confirm that he currently has a 9- to 10-page treatment of an outline for this next chapter in the ongoing saga, though he stopped short of giving any real details. When MTV pressed him on what David Dunn has been doing this entire time, he stopped short of revealing any details, though earlier in the podcast, he did confirm that he filmed a scene for Split that would have directly referenced the ongoing battle between Dunn and Mister Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). As for whether or not Unbreakable 3 will be Shyamalan's next movie, the director went so far as to say:

I think so. I think it's the next thing. I do have another idea that has nothing to do with this... something I'm excited about as well.

But Split earning $40 million at the box office, enough for M. Night's first weekend win in years, likely is incentive enough for the studios involved to keep Shyamalan in the Unbreakable 3 business. What do you think? Are you excited to see how this potential trilogy eventually concludes?

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.