James McAvoy Plays 20 Different Personalities In Glass

James McAvoy returning as Split villain in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass as Kevin Wendell Crumb who has
(Image credit: (Universal Pictures))

M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 psychological thriller Split not only marked a comeback for the director, it also featured an ambitious performance from James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb, a criminal with a slew of distinct split personalities, including a 9-year-old boy named Hedwig and an older woman known as Ms. Patricia. In Glass, the upcoming sequel to Split, which was also revealed to be a spinoff of Shyamalan's 2000 film Unbreakable, audiences will meet plenty more of Kevin' other personalities. Here's what we can expect, per Shyamalan:

If you see in the computer in Split, you'll see all the personalities, all 23 -- not counting The Beast, 24. But then in Glass we figured all of them out, all 24. What they were, what they're meant to be. And I believe 20 are in the movie now.

Wow, looks like we could be delving into just about every one of Kevin's personalities by the end of Glass, along with catching up with Bruce Willis' David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price 19 years after the events in Unbreakable as the three characters all find themselves in the same high-security hospital.

Ahead of the release of Glass, _M. Night Shyamalan, Samuel L. Jackson and James McAvoy sat down with Fandango's Erik Davis and talked about how the _Split lead character will be developed in upcoming release. McAvoy said by the end of the 2016 film, he had played about 11 personalities, but this time they figured out all 24, with 20 appearing in Glass.

If only half as many personalities were in the villain's standalone origin story, Glass is packing in a lot for the character this time around. Fans of Split are certainly curious to learn about all the unseen characters in their film introduction, so it does make sense that Glass will delve into them.

However, Glass is also pulling double-duty as a sequel to one of M. Night Shyamalan's most beloved films, Unbreakable. The 2000 film was a successful follow-up to The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. After Willis' character, David Dunn, is the sole survivor of a devastating train accident, he learns of more superhuman abilities such as strength and being able to see visions of crimes before they happen through touch.

Jackson's character, Elijah Price, helps David see his amazing abilities, but in a stunning twist, he is revealed to be the villain to David's hero, orchestrating many "accidents" to find someone unbreakable to counter his fragile bones that keep him in a wheel chair.

In Glass, it looks like Elijah will team up with Kevin to break out of the mental health facility, leading David Dunn to need to break out as well to find and stop them from wreaking havoc on the outside world. The character's will face off when Glass hits theaters on January 18.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.