Split’s Kevin and his 24 personalities are back — and so are Unbreakable’s David Dunn and Mr. Glass in M. Night Shyamalan’s much-awaited, world-merging film, Glass.
Just in time for San Diego Comic-Con, the trailer for the fusion sequel to Shyamalan’s Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016) is here, and it lives up to the anticipation that’s been building since Shyamalan first teased the sequel in a tweet. Bruce Willis’ David Dunn (the protagonist of Unbreakable), James McAvoy’s Kevin (from Split), and Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price (the eponymous Mr. Glass) come together in the new trailer, collectively being examined by Sarah Paul’s Elli Staple, a psychologist who specializes in individuals who believe they are superheroes. The trailer places the three men together in an institution — perceived as having delusions of grandeur, they assert that their powers are very real. Says Mr. Glass at the end of the trailer, “I have been waiting for the world to see that we exist.”
Of the film, Shyamalan said, “Finally, the thriller genre and the comic book genre have come together,” calling Glass “the first fully grounded superhero movie.” It’s clear that Glass will live up to its predecessors and we’ll finally get to experience all of the implications of the revelation that Unbreakable and Split are part of the same universe.
Glass hits theaters on Jan. 18, 2019.
M. Night Shyamalan's cinematic universe is taking shape. At Comic-Con 2018, Universal revealed the first trailer for Glass, the film that ties together Unbreakable, Shyamalan's unique take on the superhero genre, and Split, a horror movie that ended with a surprise connection to his earlier work.
The trailer begins with Sarah Paulson, who plays a psychiatrist expressing her skepticism about the superhero (and villain) abilities posessesed by David Dunn (Bruce Willis), Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson).
But, as you can imagine, that skepticism is short-lived as the remainder of the trailer showcases Dunn's durability and strength, the darker and more powerful sides of Crumb's many personalities and Price's Machiavellian scheming as Mr. Glass.
You can watch the full trailer below.
Now Playing: Watch this: Split, Unbreakable come together in Glass trailer
And here's Universal's official synopsis for the film:
From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb's superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men. This riveting culmination of his worldwide blockbusters will be produced by Shyamalan and Jason Blum, who also produced the writer/director's previous two films for Universal. They produce again with Ashwin Rajan and Marc Bienstock, and Steven Schneider, who will executive produce.
Check out all of CNET's Comic-Con 2018 coverage here.
Photo: Jessica Kourkounis/Universal Pictures
Fulfilling a tease made at the end of 2016’s Split — as well as a wannabe franchise launch that dates all the way back to 2000’s Unbreakable — director M. Night Shyamalan has followed up both of those films with Glass, which just received a splashy debut at San Diego Comic-Con. This time around, Unbreakable’s superheroic Bruce Willis reunites with the devious Samuel L. Jackson but must also tangle with Split’s James McCoy when all three of them are confined together in an asylum. The trailer promises villainous team-ups, shirtless fight scenes, and Sarah Paulson if you needed further frosting on the cake, but you’ll have to wait a little longer to taste more than this morsel, since the film comes out January 18, 2019.
By default, Glass will be the only Walt Disney movie previewed at this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con. They don’t have a full-blown presentation this weekend and, absent the front-page news concerning James Gunn, they would have stayed out of the headlines. But as you know, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass is a Universal/Comcast Corp. release in North America and a Walt Disney release overseas. That’s because it’s both a sequel to Universal and Blumhouse’s Split and Walt Disney’s Unbreakable.
As for the trailer, it seems to be blending the small-scale horror of Split with the comparatively bigger-scale of Unbreakable, a film that cost $80 million back when studios could afford to spend $80m on an original, star-driven programmer. It badly needs a jolt of that familiar theme music, but it is a weird kick see Bruce Willis’s David Dunn and Sam Jackson’s Mr. Glass together again. This all looks like deeply problematic ridiculousness, but I'm on board for the ride.
I can only hope that Blumhouse’s small-budget aesthetic can keep this sequel from becoming just another overblown superhero smackdown. Either way, the excitement over this trailer will likely be as good as it gets even if the movie turns out to be good-to-great. After all, the mere idea of getting a serious, contemplative and mythical real-world superhero drama was itself incredibly exciting to fans back in 2000 in a way that can’t be duplicated in this superhero-saturated era.
I’m guessing if you’re reading a post about the first trailer for Glass that you already know this information. And you’re either psyched to finally be getting a sequel to Unbreakable 18.75 years after the first one or merely curious as to how Shyamalan will juggle what amounts to a two-for-one sequel for two films that belong in two entirely different sub-genres. Either way, this is just one of (at least) two major event movie-level offerings from Blumhouse in 2019.
Jordan Peele’s Us opens in March and will arrive just over two years after Get Out. Ironically, the comparison that comes to mind for that one is… Unbreakable arriving 1.5 years after Shyamalan knocked all of our socks off with The Sixth Sense. There aren’t many stories of this nature in today’s IP-driven landscape, with a singular filmmaker announcing themselves with a non-franchise picture and then becoming something of a marquee director, especially outside of horror.
It's no secret that I had no interest in a sequel to Unbreakable, feeling that the origin story was the most interesting part (Shyamalan agreed since the original idea was more a conventional three-act superhero movie) and not necessarily wanting the very things (David Dunn battling Mr. Glass on a rooftop in a blinding thunderstorm) that would make it a more conventional superhero movie. But A) I'm older and less grouchy about these things now, and B) the notion of getting what amounts to a cross-over sequel and a wholly original cinematic universe is enough of a new gimmick to see what transpires.
I wish Robin Wright was coming back, as her relationship to Willis helped make Unbreakable more than just a superhero fantasy, but I'm heartened that Anya Taylor-Joy is back in some capacity. One of my issues with Split was that it used a sordid tale of teen girls being menaced and murdered by a scary dude for what amounted to the predator's supervillain origin story. That Casey is in Glass, depending on how she is used, may retroactively allow me to feel a little less icky about Split.
Can this one be a satisfying sequel to both Split and Unbreakable while offering a trilogy capper to the first wholly original cinematic universe? If M. Night pulls this off, what a story it will make. And if the reviews are decent, it may even have a shot at besting Shyamalan’s personal-best opening weekend record (Signs, with $62m in 2002). Of course, an opening closer to The Village ($50m in 2004) would be no shame and a launch above Paranormal Activity 3 ($52m) would be a Blumhouse best.
Glass, starring Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard and Sarah Paulson. It opens in North America on Jan. 18, 2019.
