Posted in: Blumhouse, Lionsgate, Movies | Tagged: saw x, SAW XI

Saw XI Story Details Revealed, Would Have Started 30 Secs After Saw X

Twisted Picture co-founder and producer Oren Koules revealed story details about the canceled Saw XI, including that it would have picked up 30 seconds after Saw X ended.

The events that followed the extremely successful release of Saw X in September 2023, to the cancellation of Saw XI and Blumhouse buying Twisted Pictures' stake in the franchise in the summer of 2025, are still baffling if you think about them. A horror franchise pulling in some of its best reviews and a solid box office take on its tenth entry is insanity, but double the fact that it is technically a prequel, and it was like Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate picked some winning lottery numbers. Despite the fact that the timeline for this franchise is pretty set and one of the things the fans like is the canon, there were rumblings about an eleventh movie, because of course there was. They were coming off incredible numbers. Why not see if they could pull it off again?

By December 2023, they were confirming an eleventh movie with a graphic on the official Instagram account and, shockingly, a release date that was less than a year away. That was already concerning, so when news came down that the film was getting delayed from September 2024 to September 2025 in March 2024, no one was that surprised. Saw XI needed a little more time to cook, but not long after, things stalled and the film was removed from the schedule. There were rumors of infighting, and people were nervous.

Everyone had a feeling that things were happening behind the scenes. In March 2025, Saw XI had officially stalled, but Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate weren't saying one way or another what the future of the franchise would be. That's until the big news dropped in June 2025, when it was confirmed that Twisted Pictures had sold its stake in the franchise to Blumhouse, with Lionsgate remaining involved. Right away, we learned that James Wan was returning to the franchise, but it's unclear in which direction they will be taking things. It seems the report about infighting was, and it was between Twisted Picture co-founders and producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg. We heard that from a third party, but in an interview with ComicBook.com, Koules admitted, "Mark and I had a difference of opinion about how Saw 11 would be. It's really too bad."

When word came down that the movie was stalling and could be in trouble back in March 2025, we also learned that screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan had turned in a script almost a year before. We didn't know much about a potential Saw XI, but Koules officially has zero stake in any of it, so why not spill the tea? "We had everybody in, including Synnøve [Macody Lund, who played Saw X villain Cecilia Pederson] coming back from Saw X," Koules said. "She's amazing. The script that we had was going to take place 30 seconds after Saw X ended. … It's just too bad. We had a difference of opinion, and we couldn't resolve it."

That difference in opinion led to Twisted Pictures walking away from a franchise that appeared to be getting a rare second wind more than two decades after the first film had premiered. Blumhouse is the one controlling that creepy little puppet now, but being under Blumhouse doesn't have the pedigree it did a couple of years ago. The studio went from being at the top of the horror game to bombing out several times on several big projects, the most recent one being M3GAN 2.0. Three or four years ago, Saw fans might have been a little excited to see the series move to the Blumhouse name. Now? Well, horror fans are loyal, we can just hope Blumhouse starts returning that genre loyalty with half-decent movies.

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