The Most Brutal Slasher Franchise Might Not Be As Dead As You Think
Let’s play a game. At some point in the future.
Some horror franchises feel like they’ve been around forever, even though they premiered after the turn of the millennium. Final Destination just revealed the trailer for its latest edition, Final Destination: Bloodlines. Insidious only premiered in 2010, but it already has four sequels. But the modern horror hit with the biggest impact is Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s low-budget psychological horror that took the twisted morality tale to bloody new heights.
The franchise has floundered a bit recently, especially as the question of “Who is Jigsaw?” got increasingly complicated in the 21 years since Saw hit theaters. The next movie, Saw XI, appeared to be in trouble — but Lionsgate has assured audiences the story isn’t over yet.
Saw has been wildly overreacting to people’s moral failings for over two decades now.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate recently announced that The Strangers: Chapter 2, the sequel to 2024’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, will premiere in theaters September 26, 2025. That was supposed to be the release date of Saw XI, and this isn’t the first time it’s been bumped. Saw XI was initially scheduled for release on September 25, 2024, but it lost its date to Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go.
This time, however, Saw XI wasn’t rescheduled, but taken off the release calendar entirely. This came amid rumors that development of the project had paused due to “inter-squabbling” among producers. “It’s stalled at a managerial level,” co-writer Patrick Melton told THR in March 2025. “It has nothing to do with the creative or anything else. There’s higher-level things at play.”
Thanks to these two updates, fans feared 2023’s Saw X would be the franchise’s final film, but a new update from a strange source seems to have debunked that rumor. Lionsgate issued a statement from Billy the Puppet, the tricycling spiral-cheeked dummy used by villain Jigsaw. “I’ve seen the rumors,” it read. “They say it’s Game Over. You all should know me better than that. The game is never over.”
Billy the Puppet is #Employed as a “Life Coach” at Lionsgate.
Just in case that wasn’t reassurance enough, Billy the Puppet now has his own LinkedIn page, proving he’s looking to hustle and grind. “A puppet that has been in the game for 20+ years,” his bio reads. “Experience in civil engineering, game design, and life coaching.” Each of the Saw movies is featured on his resumé, and corporate-speak describes his work on all of them. For example, the first Saw movie is described as “worked with a skilled doctor and innovative photographer to reach their full potential.”
It may not be the most straightforward way to reassure a fandom, but it does prove that Lionsgate hasn’t forgotten about the franchise. Supposedly, a “very timely” script is ready to go, so it should just be a matter of time before we see Jigsaw again.
