It’s not often M. Night Shyamalan is able to generate much excitement these days (that’s what a run of Lady in the Water, The Happening and The Last Airbender will do for you), and while early reviews for the upcoming sci-fi After Earth are doing little to suggest his latest film will drag him out of his rut, the director has now teased the possibility of returning to the superhero genre for the long-rumoured sequel to Unbreakable. Speaking to MTV, Shyamalan has revealed that Unbreakable 2 is “on his agenda” and that “as long as it can be connected to something that I’m feeling right now then it’ll work for me.”
Released back in 2000, Unbreakable starred Bruce Willis as David Dunn, a security guard who discovers that he possesses super powers after coming out unscathed from a train wreck that claims the lives of all the other passengers. Tutored in his new found abilities by Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price – who suffers from a rare disease which makes his bones extremely brittle – David eventually comes to realise that… SPOILER… Elijah is responsible for orchestrating hundreds of disasters around the world in order to discover a hero worthy of becoming his adversary.
Shortly after its release it was rumoured that Unbreakable was to be the first instalment in a trilogy of films and while Shyamalan distanced himself from this speculation, he did attempt to get a sequel off the ground in 2001, only for Touchstone to turn the follow up down due to their disappointment over the box office performance of the original.
After Earth is set for release on May 31st in North America and June 7th in the UK, with a cast that includes Will Smith (Men in Black 3), Jaden Smith (The Karate Kid), Sophie Okonedo (Æon Flux), Zoe Kravitz (X-Men: First Class), Glen Morshower (Transformers) and Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones).
Originally published May 30, 2013. Updated November 29, 2022.
