It's fairly unusual to hear that a large studio like Disney might be teaming up with another large studio like Universal--especially since both companies even compete outside of movies and in the theme park space. Regardless, that's exactly what Disney's Buena Vista International and Universal Pictures are about to do with Glass, the upcoming sequel to Unbreakable coming from M. Night Shyamalan. The two are teaming up for an intriguing reason: Split and Unbreakable were released by different distributing companies, and now the two companies are working together to make sure that the universe Shyamalan has created will continue to be shared.
Way back in 2000, Disney's Buena Vista Pictures was responsible for distributing Unbreakable, a flick about a security guard who realizes he has superhuman powers, including strength. Then, in 2017 Universal released Split, which we learned was in the same universe as Unbreakable near the end of the movie. Split ends--and minor spoilers--with a surprise cameo from David Dunn, a character in Unbreakable who is played by Bruce Willis. To film that cameo, Split had to borrow the rights from Buena Vista. Now, the two companies will be partnering up again for Glass.
According to a new report, the two studios decided it would be in their best interests to produce another sequel to the two movies. Per THR, the two studios met, and now we know Universal will be distributing Glass stateside while Disney/ BVI will be dealing with the release elsewhere in the world.
Although production has already started on Glass, we don't know a ton about what the movie will get into. However, we do know that Unbreakable's Bruce Willis is set to return as David Dunn in the movie and that his co-star Samuel L. Jackson will also be back as Mr. Glass; we should also mention Spencer Treat Clark and Charlayne Woodard will be returning. In addition, Split's James McAvoy and Ana Taylor-Joy will also be back for the new movie, meaning this partnership between the two studios is really rather crucial, similarly to how the deal between Sony and Marvel regarding when each studio could use Spider-Man was crucial (albeit a little different.)
In addition to the returning characters, Glass is also adding some newbies, including Sarah Paulson. We also know that it will be 19 years after the events in Unbreakable and will feature David Dunn encountering The Beast in a series of escalating events. We also know that M. Night Shyamalan really wants the new sequel to work as a standalone, just like the other two movies. What that will look like remains to be seen, but we'll let you know as soon as both studios start allowing real details to be released. Glass is currently expected to hit theaters in 2019. To find out what flicks are going to be hitting theaters sooner, take a look at our full movies premiere schedule to see upcoming dates.
